The Hard Life
by Spike868
Summary: A child abducter Elliot and Olivia locked up five years ago returns to take revenge. Rated at least M 15, detals inside. R&R please, I'm new at SVU fics but I've got a long plot for this.
1. Chapter 1

SUMMARY: A child abductor Elliot and Olivia arrested five years ago returns after being paroled and seeks revenge on them for locking him up. Elliot soon discovers that he's upped his game since then and is into more than just child abduction. And now, he doesn't work alone.

RATING: MA15+ at least, possibly even R for moderate to high level violence and/or torturous scenes, sexual references and/or themes, adult themes and low-level coarse language. I think that's all… just to be safe.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything. Dick Wolf created the Law and Order franchise so all the props go to him.

Author's Note: I do love Elliot. I don't mean anything against him by what happens in this story, so I'll say that now. Enjoy. And please, when you review take into consideration that this is my first Law and Order: SVU fic. Cheers.

**THE FOLLOWING IS FICTIONAL AND NO ACTUAL PERSON OR EVENT IS DEPICTED**

**The Hard Life**

**CHAPTER ONE: Past and Present**

_New York, Thursday March 22nd 2001, 11:37 am…_

The van cruised down the dark road at sunset, away from nearly all of civilisation and out in the emptiness of New York's disused factory district. Shadows danced on the tar ahead as the sun peaked between chimneys and slanted rooves.

The man driving wore a black balaclava and sweater, with long dark trousers and heavy steel-capped boots. His van was painted black as well, the deepest colour of deception and lies.

The driver was Liam Olsen, a 22 year-old man with one thing on his mind. Getting the girls in the back of his van to somewhere nobody would ever find them. He knew exactly what he was doing, stealthily kidnapping each of the seven girls in the back of the van and abducting them to a secure location. It was all planned perfectly from the beginning, by none other than himself. The whole deal was a power trip for Liam; and he wanted nothing more than to take control.

As he reached his chosen destination, a large empty factory, he parked the van just inside an open shed and climbed out. Sliding the van's door open he began pulling the girls out one by one and walking them over to a cluster of empty shipping crates. He locked each girl inside a separate crate and returned for another from the van.

He thought he was a genius. He thought he was in total control, but he didn't know that ever since he abducted the seventh girl the police had been on his tail. A report had been made by a father supervising his child at a playground that a man had grabbed a young girl and forced her into the back of a black van. The man caught the licence plate number and reported it to the New York Police Department who forwarded it on to the Special Victims Unit. Partners Elliot Stabler and Oliver Benson were the detectives in charge of the case.

They'd been tracking Liam and had traced him to the disused factory district. Using aerial tracking devices they located him in an old factory used for loading shipping crates with goods to be shipped overseas. Gathering about 50 NYPD officers, Elliot and Olivia prepared to storm the factory. Suited-up with bullet-proof vests they accessed the factory's main loading bay and silently began seeking out Liam Olsen.

Elliot and Olivia slowly advanced around rows and rows of shipping crates and a few wooden crates with drapes and old tarps lying over them. They approached a corner and heard a man cough. Elliot's whole body froze. They'd found him.

"You go that way." He whispered to Olivia. "Find the girl." Holding his gun in his right hand, Elliot pointed to his left in the direction he wanted Olivia to go. She nodded and raised her gun, slinking off around the corner of a large blue shipping crate.

Elliot made his way in the opposite direction, keeping a firm grip on his raised gun as he went in search of where he heard the cough coming from. Poking his head around corners before he advanced further, Elliot soon found the man he was looking for. An open door leading into a shipping crate was being pushed closed by a man dressed entirely in black. Elliot pointed his gun out in front of him at the man and spoke.

"Liam Olsen." Was all he got out before Liam turned his head to look over his shoulder, caught sight of Elliot and ran. Elliot fired a shot but missed, and a chase began. Liam darted between crates and Elliot stayed close behind him, hearing the thundering footsteps of Liam's heavy black boots on the cement echoing up the sides of the metal crates. Liam reached a dead end, and Elliot appeared just as he spun around. Elliot's gun was still raised and pointed at Liam, and he wasn't backing down. He slowly began to advance on Liam, walking down the aisle between the crates as he kept his eye on the man before him. Elliot noticed blood on Liam's hands as he got closer, and asked about the reported kidnapping. "Where's the girl, Liam?"

"What girl?" Liam asked sardonically. "The dead girl?" Elliot shifted his weight. The bastard killed the girl, and Elliot was discomforted by the news. It didn't stop him though, he demanded to know more.

"Where is she?"

"She's dead."

"But where is she?" Elliot demanded. Olivia heard the voices talking loudly nearby, but couldn't figure out how to get to them. She had heard the gunshot earlier as she located several girls locked inside shipping containers and alerted the officers outside who were preparing to storm the factory. As she approached where she heard the voices coming from, she found where they were. Down a dead end aisle of crates were Liam and Elliot. Elliot heard the footsteps behind him and made the mistake of turning around to look. Liam took the second of opportunity and reached for the gun tucked into his belt, pointing it at Elliot. He wasn't stupid; he wasn't going to shoot a cop dead in cold blood. However, he didn't bother aiming lower instead just firing and hoping for the best. As Elliot turned back he was shot in the left shoulder.

"Aagh!" Elliot fired a single shot before his gun went flying and he fell backwards to the ground. Liam was hit in the leg by Elliot's bullet, but still held his gun. Olivia saw Liam's gun and yelled at him to drop it as she ignored Elliot lying on the ground bleeding out from the wound in his shoulder.

"Drop it! Now! Drop it!" Olivia yelled loudly as sirens wailed outside. Liam was caught, he knew it, but he refused to give up yet. He approached Olivia, his gun still pointed at her. She had no choice, and fired. Liam collapsed to the ground; the bullet hitting his knee-cap.

The 50 other NYPD officers stormed the factory from all entrances and narrowed in on where they'd heard the shots being fired. As they surrounded the area, Liam had no choice but to give up. He dropped his gun and fell to the ground, clutching his knee. Olivia waited for officers to enter the area before she reached behind her to pull out her walkie-talkie.

"I need a BUS. Officer down, I repeat, officer down. On 56th Avenue, there's a factory surrounded by police. He doesn't have much time." Olivia allowed the officers to arrest Liam, rushing to Elliot's side.

He was lying on his back on the cold cement floor, trying to cover the wound with his right hand. His breathing was becoming irregular and Olivia watched as he began gasping for air.

"Elliot." She said loudly, keeping him conscious. "Elliot, how bad is it?"

"My…" Elliot breathed his response.

"Elliot, can you breathe?" Olivia could see that he was having difficulty breathing and feared that the bullet had hit his lung.

"Yeah." He answered. "I just…"

"Okay." Olivia stopped him. "Save your breath, just wait. Someone is coming to help." Olivia reached into her pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. She moved his quivering hand away from the wound and pressed the handkerchief onto the wound.

"Aagh!" Elliot squirmed and cried out in pain as Olivia put pressure on the wound. "Son of a…"

"Elliot, I'm sorry but I have to try and stop the bleeding." Elliot tried to nod in reply. For several minutes they sat as officers located the seven girls Liam had kidnapped, and arrested the man himself. Elliot looked up and saw two officers escorting Liam out.

"You bastard…" Elliot growled. "You. Bastard."

"You were too late. That's too bad." The two officers half-dragged Liam out, his leg practically useless after Elliot had shot him, and then Olivia.

"Get him out of here." Olivia instructed the officers, who promptly led Liam out of sight and to an awaiting police car outside. She turned back to Elliot whose head was slowly rolling to the side. He was passing out. "Elliot! Elliot, stay with me." Olivia instructed him. "Come on. Elliot!"

Elliot forced his head to roll back to where it was, looking up at Olivia. He opened his mouth and tried to speak, but no sound came out. He gasped again a few times, trying to regulate his breathing. It had worked for a few minutes, but he was struggling again. The bullet hadn't hit his lung, just puncturing an artery in his shoulder. Olivia could tell by the amount of blood lost that Elliot was in bad shape.

Sirens could be heard in the distance, and Olivia was surprised that Elliot had held on for this long. An officer had brought Elliot a blanket when he'd whispered to Olivia that he felt cold. He'd been lying there on the cold cement floor for about 20 minutes.

Medics dressed in navy blue finally arrived and found Olivia and Elliot in the dead end where they had remained the whole time. Just as Olivia heard the medics coming, she told Elliot.

"It's okay now Elliot, they're here. You're gonna be just fine." Elliot smiled weakly up at her before passing out. "Elliot?" Olivia still tried to keep him conscious. "Elliot!" It was too late. Olivia told the medics as they arrived and they quickly got to work on patching him up.

Olivia jogged beside the stretcher as Elliot was wheeled out of the factory. She was holding his hand tightly, hoping that he'd feel it. Then she saw Liam.

She gave him a deathly stare, furious for what he'd done to Elliot. She didn't know that he was just as angry for what they'd both done to him. He was assaulted as a child and thought that what he had done was something that he needed. He was angry, upset, confused and dangerous in his way of thinking; and nobody understood why he did it. Why he took all those girls, raped them and killed them. It was because of his childhood, his up-bringing. He was abused by his father and knew no better than to do the same to someone else. So he did. Seven helpless girls fell at his feet in mercy, and as he was caught by Elliot and Olivia it brought his word crashing down. He hated them with a passion for destroying the one thing he had control over in his life. The one thing. He knew that they had to pay, so as Olivia walked by he whispered harshly a threat to her and Elliot.

"Your day will come." He threatened. "Just you wait and see. I'm not finished yet, but soon, you will be."

**5 years later…**

_New York, Wednesday April 26th 2006, NYPD: SVU squad room, 9:03 am…_

Elliot had just arrived for work, and as he routinely hung his coat on the rack he didn't even hear the Captain calling his name. Twice.

"Elliot!" He was totally zoned out, and took no notice of the Captain until he realised where he actually was. The third time his name was called, he responded.

"Yeah Captain?" He called in reply to his boss who was standing at the doorway to his office across the room.

"My office. Now." He disappeared inside and Elliot sighed, making his way through the squad room.

Olivia was inside. Elliot smiled warmly to her, knowing that although they were friends still, she was a little tense around him. She had, after all, been the one who had asked for a new partner.

"What's up Captain?" Elliot asked.

"Do you remember a man named Liam Olsen?" The Captain asked.

"Yeah. It's not exactly a name you forget." Elliot remembered him; he'd never forgotten that face. The bastard put him in hospital for a month and only got a 6 year sentence as punishment for it.

"Well, did you know that he was released last Tuesday?" Elliot was taken by surprise, and showed it through anger.

"What? Why the hell did they let him out early?" He demanded.

"His parole was 5 years, minimum. He was released after displaying good behaviour, meaning that now he's out."

"Great."

"That's not all." Olivia piped up. "He's left messages on my answering machine at home. Somehow he's got my home address and he's been contacting me."

"What does he want?" Elliot asked her directly. The Captain could tell that Elliot was a little unsettled by the news and let them speak.

"He was threatening to come after us. And he wasn't just making idle threats; it's been going on since the day he got out of prison. He tracked me down and he's been saying that he coming to get us."

"Both of us?" Elliot asked. Olivia nodded. "Then why has he only left messages at your house?"

"Because it was me he threatened five years ago when he was arrested." Olivia explained. "He threatened both of us through me."

"How come I never knew about this?" Elliot demanded.  
"Because I didn't know how you'd take it. You were in hospital for a month because of him. He shot you Elliot; it's not just something that you walk away from without holding some sort of grudge."

"Good point. I do hold a grudge, but I wouldn't go and take it out on him."

"Wouldn't you?" Captain Cragen spoke up, saying his comment almost as a statement of what he thought Elliot would have done.

"No." Elliot replied. "I wouldn't, not without good reason."

"And being shot is not good enough reason for you?" Olivia pressed.

"It is but I wouldn't do it because I'd be putting you in danger Olivia." Elliot explained. "I would never intentionally put you in any danger." Olivia smiled, remembering why they were no longer partners. "So what are we going to do about him?"

"You're going to start by trying to locate him. Fin's tracking down his parole officer now."

"Right. I'll check in with him and see if he's found anything." Elliot turned to leave the office.

"Elliot, keep your cool on this case. You lose it and you're off." Captain Cragen called after him. Elliot continued out the door.

"Fine."

"Stick with Fin! Olivia's with Munch!" Elliot ignored him, even though he had heard what was said. He wanted to be partnered with Olivia; she was such a great team mate. But in the end it was her choice to leave. She couldn't stand to be partnered with him.

"Fin, what you got?" Elliot asked as he approached his new partner.

"Just what we need Elliot." Fin replied. "The guy's parole officer is Rupert Elton and his place is over on 56th Avenue.

_House of Rupert Elton, 56th Avenue, 9:45 am…_

Elliot knocked on the door, Fin standing by his side. A chain could be heard sliding on the other side of the door before it opened and a middle-aged man with black hair wearing a navy suit appeared.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" he asked. Elliot and Fin showed him their shields. "Come inside officers. What can I do for you today?"

"We're looking to find a man named Liam Olsen." Fin began.

"Ah, Liam." Rupert mused. "Now there's a troubled man."

"You're his parole officer?"

"Sure am. But I hardly ever see him, only when he has to check in. I never see him around the place, even though he lives just down the street."

"Liam Olsen lives down the street?" Elliot repeated the phrase just for himself before exchanging glances with Fin.

"Thank you for your time Mr. Elton, we'll go see if we can catch him in today."

_House of Liam Olsen, 56th Avenue, 9:56 am…_

Fin knocked on the door this time, with Elliot attempting to peer in through the curtains into what they both guessed to be the living room right on the other side of the door.

There was no answer.

"I guess he's not home then." Fin turned to Elliot, who sighed.

"Guess so. We could check in with Rupert on other places we might be able to find him?" Elliot suggested.

"Maybe, I suppose we could try."

"I have to talk to this bastard. If he's been threatening Olivia then I can't just ignore that." Elliot told Fin. "He can't get away with that, and I can't let him."

"Elliot, just calm down. He was threatening you too, right?" Elliot nodded. "Well then maybe it isn't the best idea for you to be meeting with him if you're pissed of at him. Tempers aren't gonna help the situation at all."

"It's just… this guy it a real pain-in-the-ass type guy, you know? He's a sicko child molester who's fresh out of jail and looking for revenge. Tell me _that's_ not gonna help the situation."

"No, but you being angry with him isn't either. We still have to pin this on him before we can do anything about it."

"But we know that he did it."

"How? Exactly…" Fin pondered. "How does Olivia know for sure that it was him?" He caught Elliot's stern glare. "I mean, I don't doubt her or anything like that, but how can she be sure it's him without proof by voice recognition?"

"I'm sure the Captain's thought of asking her to bring in her tapes from home." Elliot replied. "Since Liam isn't here, we should probably go see if they've got that far yet."

_NYPD: SVU squad room, 10:23 am…_

Olivia and Munch had been back to Olivia's place to collect her tapes and had since returned and began working on them with technicians with voice recognition technology.

"What can you tell us about the man you think voice belongs to?" the technician James asked.

"Well, he had short brown hair last I saw him, a round face and stubble on his chin and up the sides of his face, like sideburns. He was tall, average weight, medium build… but most of that has probably changed since his stay in prison." Olivia recalled what she could of Liam, realising it probably wouldn't help much.

"It just gives me an idea of whether the voice will fit the person it's meant to." James told her and Munch.

"That makes sense." Munch commented. "Match the voice to the person… and does it match for Liam?"

"Actually, I'm not sure. I'll play you some of the recording and point out what I mean."

"_Olivia…_" James stopped the recording.

"The voice is singing your name here." James commentaries the recording. "It's possibly as a taunt to get you worked up over what he might say later." He continued playback.

"_Did you think I'd forgotten you? I'll never forget you… or Elliot. How's Elliot doing, any more gunshot wounds? He got off easy… but he won't this time_."

"Now that sort of tone, the gruff and deep I'm-meant-to-be-scaring-you-right-now voice is usually used by somebody who has a scruffy appearance and takes little pride in their appearance or their attitude. The man you described seemed to have taken care of himself. Perhaps after being in prison for a certain number of years, a person can change their attitude about things like that. I'll play the next bit of the recording, but I'll leave off the last bit. You might not want to hear that part again."

"Thank you." Olivia smiled and James played back some more of the recording.

"_You and Elliot have stayed partners since you locked me up, but things are changing now, aren't they? Things are different between you two and there's a lot of tension there. I think the tension could be cut with a knife in some situations, don't you Olivia? Or maybe something other than the tension could be cut with a knife… like maybe a body part._" James stopped the recording.

"You probably didn't want to hear further than that, did you?" Olivia shook her head.

"No, that's enough. So what can you tell us?"

"Well it sounds like it could be just about anyone. You wouldn't happen to have a picture of him, would you?"

"Oh, back in the Captain's office there's a file on Liam. I'll be back in a few minutes." Munch turned to leave, with only Olivia and James left in the recording room.

"You know it's him, don't you?" James asked her once he was sure Munch was out of ear.

"It couldn't be anyone else. There's been no other situation like this _ever_ with me and Elliot as partners, so there's nobody else this could possibly be. But to stick to the law we have to have proof that it is him."

"Do you have anything we can match his voice to?"

"I could set up a phone call that's monitored by some of our officers to his home phone. Maybe we can catch him there and he'll actually answer it."

"That sounds like it could work. Come back and see me when you've got his voice taped onto something."

_11:07 am…_

"Captain!" Olivia called as she ran through the squad room. Captain Cragen was just about to close the door to his office.

"Olivia? What's up?"

"We need another recording of Liam's voice." She informed him. "We could set up a monitored phone call to Liam, surveyed by Fin and Elliot outside of his house. Once we've got his voice they can match it to the recordings on my answering machine tapes and make a positive ID on him. Only then can we bring him in with proof that he's violated his parole."

"Sounds like you've got this all worked out Olivia. Nice job, so let's get this thing up and running." He pointed to a woman across the room. "Go talk to Kaylee over there and she'll set you up with everything you need. I'll call Fin and Elliot and get them back here to the station. Munch is still with the voice recognition team seeing if there's anything else on the tapes we can use besides his threats."

_11:26 am…_

Fin, Elliot, Munch and Olivia were gathered in Captain Cragen's office with A.D.A Casey Novak to discuss the current case. They'd organised and been assigned roles in the phone call set-up, and we just waiting for Casey to give them the 'a-ok'.

"You shouldn't need a warrant to orchestrate a monitored and recorded phone call, and from the evidence I'm not even sure I could get you one." Casey informed the crew.

"What are you talking about?" Elliot asked. "It _couldn't_ be anyone else except for Liam. There's nobody else we've ever both arrested and who would have a reason to hold a grudge against us."

"Elliot, a defence attorney could claim that Liam's voice sounds similar or the same to hundreds of other men in New York alone. It would be a risk, and it's not necessary. Save that evidence for later as proof to match to."

"That's the plan." Olivia chimed in. "We need to make a supervised phone call to Liam's house and get a recording of his voice to match against the recordings we have."

"You should have no problem doing that." Casey picked up her bag and draped her coat over her arm. "Call me when you're finished so I can get you an arrest warrant."

"Thanks Casey." Olivia smiled.

"Don't sweat it Olivia, if it helps to catch this guy then I'm all for it." She returned the smile and left the room.

"Okay, now we've got the go-ahead you all know what you're doing. Head on out." Captain Cragen ordered.

_House of Liam Olsen, 56th Avenue, 2:30 pm…_

Elliot and Fin's car had been parked across the road from Liam's house for a little over two hours. The two detectives had been watching and waiting for him to come home, and finally after an hour and a half a car drove into the driveway and pulled up under the carport.

"Somebody's home." Elliot spoke into his walkie-talkie. Olivia and Munch were with Joshua, who was helping them to record Liam's voice over the phone. Munch responded to Elliot's update.

"We're ready to go. Tell us when he's been inside for a few minutes." Elliot and Fin watched from the car for several minutes before seeing Liam pull back the curtain at the front of the house, and then draw it back.

"What's he looking for?" Elliot whispered to himself. Fin was almost going to answer when Elliot picked up his walkie-talkie. "Now. Make the call now. Liam's up to something."

"Right." Munch could be heard on the other end. "Olivia, make the call. Hang tight Elliot, tell us if anything's up."

Olivia dialled the number for Liam's house, expecting for him to answer. There was nothing. The phone rang at least half a dozen times before cutting to an answering machine. Olivia hung up the phone and gave Elliot and Fin new directions.

"Plan B. Go." The two detectives got out of their car and approached Liam's house. Inside, Liam watched the two men cross the street. He knew something was up, he just had that feeling. He'd been on the look-out for suspect-looking people ever since he got out of prison. He couldn't get caught, not yet.

Fin knocked on the door, and Elliot called out. "Liam Olsen?" Liam ran. He flew the back door open with a loud bang and tore off down the backyard, which was rather small to begin with. Elliot and Fin had heard the door, exchanged glances and hurried around the back of the house.

"He's running." Fin stated as they saw Liam about to jump the fence. "Freeze! Police!" He shouted, and as Liam looked over his shoulder he jumped the fence. "Suspect is fleeing on foot. We're chasing him down." Fin said into the walkie-talkie as he followed after Elliot.

Elliot chased him and jumped over into the neighbouring yard, following Liam alongside another house and out into the street. His eyes scanning the street, Elliot caught sight of Liam disappearing down beside a house straight ahead. Running out onto the road without looking, Elliot didn't see the car coming. At the last second he looked, but it was too late. At least the car was driving slow enough to only roll him a couple of metres.

Fin caught up and saw the accident, rushing to Elliot's side as he lay on his back on the road. "Elliot!" Fin shouted as he ran out. The driver of the car got out of his car and walked over.

"God, I'm so sorry. Are you all right? I didn't see you." He stammered.

"I'm… ah." Elliot cringed as he rubbed his neck. "I'm all right. Really, it's not that bad."

"You sure Elliot?" Fin asked. He nodded in response.

"I'm so sorry." The driver apologised again.

"Did you see where Liam went?" Elliot turned to Fin, ignoring the driver. Fin signalled to the guy that it was okay and walked Elliot to the sidewalk, allowing the driver to leave.

"I was too late. I didn't see where he went. I'm sorry Elliot; he must have been expecting someone to be watching him."

"Of course he was, he's fresh out of prison _and_ he's been threatening a cop! Do you really think he expects nobody's to do anything about that?"

"Elliot, we did all that we could. He was prepared, and that's all there is to it. He must've known we were there watching him or that something was up."

"I know. Come on, we should head back." Elliot began the walk around the block to their parked car.

"How's your neck?"

"Fine." Elliot rubbed it again, rolling his head around a few times to relieve the tension. He lied, it was sore. But there were more important things going on. He couldn't leave this, or something might happen to him or Olivia. He couldn't have that.

_NYPD: SVU squad room, 3:10 pm…_

"We lost him." Elliot announced as they entered the precinct. Olivia, Munch, Casey and Captain Cragen saw Elliot with ice on his neck.

"What the hell happened to you?" Cragen demanded.

"I got hit by a car." Elliot answered flatly. "Is there anything else we can use since we don't have a voice recording right now?"

"Nothing. And that means we've got no grounds to bring him in on except that we think it might be his voice." Casey replied.

"It is his voice." Olivia enforced the point again.

"If we could get him in for interrogation then we'd be able to get the voice recording, but getting him in is the hard part. We lost him already today, and my guess is that he won't be back today." Fin added.

"Right. So now we work on ideas. Pool together anything you think might work to catch this guy, and we'll work from there. Come see me when you've got something you think might work." Cragen directed his team before leaving. As he passed Olivia, he saw her disappointed expression. "Olivia, it was a good idea. Go help the guys come up with some more." He smiled and retreated to his office, leaving his detectives to organise another idea to catch Liam out.

_4:17 pm…_

Elliot, Olivia, Munch and Fin were in Cragen's office for the second time in one day, discussing ideas with Casey as their legal advisor.

"What do you have?" Cragen asked.

"Prison phones must have recordings of previous phone calls made and received to make sure prisoners are doing the right thing, even those that are supervised." Munch suggested. "We could contact Riker's Island where Liam was for the past five years and talk to somebody there about any calls he made or received during his stay."

"Sounds promising." Cragen mused. "Anything else, to be sure that we have more than just one plan?"

"Fin and I could monitor Rupert Elton's house, so when Liam checks in to his parole officer we can arrest him and bring him into the station." Elliot offered.

"I like that option." Cragen added. "Anything else?"

"There are not many open doors Captain." Munch spoke on behalf of the team. "We don't have much we can catch him on, that's if we can catch him at all. At least tomorrow we can contact Riker's Island and ask for phone records of Liam's. Hopefully they'll have recordings."

"All right." Cragen summed up the meeting by rising to his feet' his team following his lead. "Elliot, Fin; I want you two out there tonight keeping a watch on Rupert Elton's house. If you see Liam, bring him in to lockup for the night. One or both of you will have to stay with him if you arrest him; we've come too far to leave him unsupervised. Okay? See you guys tomorrow." Elliot and Fin left the room, leaving Munch, Olivia and Casey.  
Olivia heard crying outside the office and peered outside the door. A young woman of about 17 was sobbing as she stood alone in the doorway to the squad room. Olivia looked at Cragen before leaving the room to see the girl.

"You should see what that's about too John. Looks like you've got things to do, and so do I. There's paperwork to catch up on, so if you please?" Munch left with nothing more than a simple nod to Cragen. Casey soon followed him out.

"I hope they get something on this guy. I'd hate for something to happen if he's unstable and threatening Olivia and Elliot."

"Same here. But they're smart cops; they'll work through it and catch the bad guy in the end, they always do."

Outside, Olivia tried to comfort the young woman standing before her. "Hey, it's all right. What's your name?" She asked in a soothing voice.

"Maria." The girl was Asian, and her pretty brown eyes were red from crying. Her voice was thin and hoarse, and Olivia could only guess what she had been through to get here.

"What happened Maria?"

"I was…" Maria began. "I was raped."

"Okay." Maria began to cry again. "Okay, Maria I need you to come with me."

"Where are we going?" Maria asked as Olivia took her hand and led her away. Munch followed behind.

"I'm taking you to have a routine check, okay? It's all right; I'll be right by your side." She smiled warmly and took Maria under her arm. The girl cried into her shoulder as Olivia led her to medical down at the other end of the building. Munch phoned through requesting a rape kit to be on standby for their arrival. Maria was terrified, and it gave Olivia something else to worry about.

AN: Please review and let me know what you think. I've got a deep plot set up for this, so hopefully I'll be able to keep going with this and get an audience for it. Hopefully.


	2. Chapter 2

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything. Dick Wolf created the Law and Order franchise so all the props go to him.

RATING: MA15+ at least, possibly even R for moderate to high level violence and/or torturous scenes, sexual references and/or themes, adult themes and low-level coarse language. I think that's all… just to be safe.

**THE FOLLOWING IS FICTIONAL AND NO ACTUAL PERSON OR EVENT IS DEPICTED**

**CHAPTER TWO: Leads**

_New York, Thursday April 27th 2006, apartment of Olivia Benson, 3:57 am…_

It was nearly the end of the working week, and everyone was looking forward to the weekend. Munch and Fin were going to a baseball game on Saturday and Elliot was planning on spending time with his kids and his ex-wife Kathy. Olivia was planning on joining an online dating service she'd seen on a flyer one of her friends gave her. Currently though, she was far from love and happiness with any other person. She was single and slept alone at night wondering what it would be like to be… Mrs. Stabler. She knew Elliot would never do anything; he and Kathy still had something there. But then again, so did they…

As Olivia lay in her bed she kept thinking of Elliot. Why? Why was he on her mind? She should be thinking about work, the job and the victims of the crimes, not one of the very men who help solve them. But he was quite a man, and she knew it too. She got the same feeling each time she saw him, and knew that it broke his heart to be told by Cragen that she had asked for another partner.

She regretted the choice she made that night, but then again, she didn't. She knew within herself, even without him saying anything that their partnership was nearing an end. She had just been with him through too much. Did that mean that she wouldn't last with him in a relationship? All her fantasizing wasn't worth it because it would never last for as long as she'd want it to, which was forever. The relationship was destined to fail so it never even began.

Olivia was too busy thinking about what could have been with her and Elliot that she didn't hear the window slide open or the soft footsteps across her apartment as the assailant crept up to her bed.

She sighed unknowingly as the man hunched over her in the darkness grinned. Lowering his hand to her mouth, he cupped it over in a split second so she had no time to even take a breath of air through her mouth. She breathed rapidly in and out of her nose as she scrambled around underneath her pillow trying to find her gun. It was gone.

Olivia struggled, trying desperately to scream. She couldn't get any sound out except for a muffled whimper. When she realised that no matter how much she struggled she wasn't going to get free, she relaxed her body and lay still, the hand still pressed firmly over her mouth.

The attacker climbed onto the bed and knelt over her. She lay still, quiet. The darkness in the room made it difficult for her to see anything except the slight edge of his broad shoulders in the light cast through the window from the moon.

She knew the attacker was a he; they were too strong and too... masculine to be anyone other than a man. She thought of how desperately she needed to take a large breath but held on just that little longer, until she felt a cold sharp object against her neck.

"Make a sound and I'll cut your throat." The man whispered softly in a gruff voice. "Understand?" Gently, Olivia nodded. She didn't want to move too much and end up cutting herself anyway. The man removed his hand from over her mouth and pressed the blade of the knife he was holding harder against her skin. She whimpered as she felt it cut, but didn't dare open her mouth. The knife was too close, and she couldn't risk her own safety. Nobody might have even heard her if she'd taken the chance and screamed.

As the hand disappeared, Olivia's eyes were adjusting to the light more. She could see the definite shape of a man, muscly around the arms and thin everywhere else. About five seconds later Olivia saw the man's hand approach her mouth again. However, she saw that he was holding something in his fingers. A piece of material? A cloth, maybe? _Oh no..._ She knew where this was going, and knew she had to do something fast. Still, she wouldn't risk it by trying to scream for help. Somehow, she had to overpower her attacker.

It was too late, the cloth was over her mouth and she instantly found herself struggling against the intoxicating fumes. Within about ten seconds she'd be out, and she had to do something. Anything. She reached out an arm to her left, scrambling for an object to fight with. She knocked a cup off the bedside table, hearing it fall to the floor and smash. Scrambling around again, she found nothing. As she slowly blacked out, she pictured the water in the glass trickling between the floorboards and soaking the edge of her rug, making it damp. Then she was out.

_NYPD: SVU squad room, 9:19 am…_

Elliot had been right on the dot and on time for work today and his head was totally with it, unlike the previous day when he'd just breezed in a few minutes late without even giving a single thought to anything or anyone.

He sat at his desk for nearly twenty minutes as he flipped through file on Liam and documents on the squad's new case of 17 year-old Maria Ling who claimed to have been raped by a man at a downtown subway station.

Elliot had spent the night in a car with Fin watching Rupert Elton's house with no success, and no sign of Liam. Now he was back at the offices doing his day-to-day job, flipping through case files and investigating sexual abuse claims, while just about ready to drop and sleep on his desk. He considered heading out back and taking a nap.

"Elliot!" Cragen stood at the door to his office, shouting across the squad room, ignoring Fin and Munch who were sitting opposite each other discussing politics. "Have you seen Olivia this morning?"

"No, I haven't seen her come in yet." Elliot replied, looking up from the files on his desk. Cragen stepped out of his office and made his way over.

"She's never late." He continued. "Not unless she calls first to say she's sick or unless we know something's up before-hand." Elliot's eyes went wide, making the realisation.

"Wait, you think something's happened to her?" He asked.

"Maybe. How soon before Liam could possibly strike?" He asked, not entirely expecting an answer. "You and Fin didn't see him last night, so he's obviously out somewhere, right?"

"Right, but you don't think he's actually stupid enough to have gone and done something do you? He must know he'd get caught."

"Well, obviously not yet."

"You want me to swing by her place and see if she's there?" Cragen contemplated the officer's proposition before Elliot added, "Or maybe she's just stuck in traffic." He didn't want to admit that he thought something was wrong as well.

"Possibly, but with Liam still out there we can't take any chances. Swing by her place if she doesn't come in within the next ten minutes. Tell me if you're going, and send her in if she arrives." Cragen turned and headed back into his office, leaving Elliot to return to his documents.

_17 year old Maria Ling_. He read the information silently. _Reported on Wednesday April 26th 2006 that she had been raped by a young man at a subway station downtown in the early hours of Tuesday April 25th 2006_. _Rape kit found traces of semen and spermicide that belonged to two men, names unknown. Both men were young, possibly late teens or early twenties. The attack was unprovoked and spontaneous, and it was evident that neither man used a condom. Maria Ling was sent home with her mother Mei Ling to be interviewed by Special Victims Unit detectives at a later date_.

"Two samples?" Elliot was confused. "She was raped by one man... but..." He pondered the thought and glanced at the clock on his desk. _9:36 am_. It was time to stop by Olivia's apartment. He got to his feet and approached Captain Cragen's office. The Captain looked up as a shadow was cast into his office.

"Is Olivia here yet?" He inquired. Elliot shook his head. "Go find her."

_Apartment of Olivia Benson, 10:07 am…_

Elliot knocked on Olivia's door three times and then waited for an answer. There was nothing, so he knocked again.

"Olivia? It's Elliot, are you in there?" Silence. "Olivia?" Elliot knocked for the last time before taking a step back and kicking in the door. With a loud bang, the door flew open to reveal Olivia's tidy apartment.

There was a comfy sofa with a low-standing coffee table between it and the television set. A rug sat underneath those three items of furniture, its rich redness matching the dark timber walls of the room. The little kitchen was off to the left, with blue granite bench tops and clean white cupboards. Olivia sure had fixed up the place since he was last here.

Her bedroom was off to the right, in the same place it always was, with the bathroom beside it. Elliot approached the bedroom, looking to see if she was still in bed, perhaps ill. There was nothing. The sheets, however, caught his eye. The Olivia he knew was somewhat of a neat-freak. Her bed was not made, and the sheets were pulled back as if she had been in a hurry to get out of bed. But where was she in a hurry to go if not work? Where was she?

Elliot tried the bathroom, entering via a door from the bedroom. The bathroom was empty too, her towel neatly hung over the railing on the wall and her bathmat draped over the top of the shower recess. Elliot was puzzled. He turned around to exit the bathroom back via the bedroom, and caught sight of a half broken cup lying on the floor beside the bed. As he walked closer, he realised that the edge of Olivia's rug was covered with shattered glass from the cup. He looked closer to see a circle of a deeper colour where the glass' contents had spilled and stained the rug. However, it was quickly drying. Elliot touched the damp patch on the rug and discovered that it was stiff and had almost dried, meaning that the cup was spilt hours ago. He withdrew his hand suddenly as a shard of glass nicked his finger, causing a drop of blood to fall on the wooden floor beside the rug and Elliot's foot. He looked down and found two more drops of blood a little further away from his own, but he had already moved his hand away and covered the wound by pressing it against his shirt.

It wasn't his blood. It had to be Olivia's, which sent him running.

_NYPD: SVU squad room, 10:30 am…_

Elliot raced into the Captain's office, startling the man as he sat at his desk flipping through papers. He looked up at a breathless Elliot who had run all the way from the street below, two storeys up.

"Elliot? What's wrong? Did you find Olivia?"

"Her apartment was empty, Captain." Elliot breathed. "That's not what I'm here about though, that's not all I found."

"Go on." Cragen was listening.

"There was blood."

"Olivia's?" The Captain was definitely listening now.

"I think so. Two drops fell beside a single drop of mine. I cut my finger on some broken glass, and that's how I saw it. I would have missed it otherwise." He shifted his weight as he continued. "Captain, something's wrong. Her apartment was empty but _not_ how she would have left it. It looked like she had to rush off somewhere suddenly. The bed was unmade and the sheets were flipped back like she was in a hurry. She wouldn't have to go anywhere except work, so where is she?"

"I don't know Elliot, but my guess is that it has something do with Liam Olsen." Cragen got to his feet. "Go out and tell Fin that you and he are working on the rape case of that Asian girl that came in here last night, and tell Munch to get Warner and then get into my office ASAP."

"You're sending me out into the field?" Elliot protested.

"You'd rather the desk?"

"I'd rather help find out where Olivia is. You know that Captain."

"Elliot, Munch and Melinda can handle it. We have a job to do, and that involves solving sexual abuse cases not locating missing persons."

"Captain, it's Olivia." Elliot said through gritted teeth. "You can't honestly tell me that you're not concerned."

"You're right Elliot, I can't. I _am_ concerned, but that's not going to stop me from doing my job. It shouldn't stop you from doing yours either." Elliot was fuming. He couldn't believe it! Cragen was forcing him away from this. He knew that he and Olivia's recent past history wasn't so positive, but he also knew that they were still friends. There was still a strong friendship that the two ex-partners held, and Elliot believed in that. He wanted to help find her, because the feeling in his gut told him that something was very wrong.

Saying nothing in response, Elliot turned and left the Captain's office, walking over to where Fin and Munch were sitting.

"Did you find Olivia?" Munch asked.

"No. Captain says you're going to go to Olivia's apartment with the M.E and see what you can find. He wants you in his office now."

"Thanks Elliot." Munch got up and headed in to Cragen.

"What are we doing then?" Fin inquired.

"We're investigating Maria Ling's rape." Elliot answered, practically spitting his words. Fin could tell he was upset.

"You wanna go help find Olivia, right?"

"Yes, what di you think? Do I come across as _too_ pissed off?" Elliot sneered. Fin pulled a face before Elliot added a sarcastic note to his comment. "Maybe I should tone it down a bit."

"Come on Elliot, I'm sure she's fine. And if she's not, well then we'll figure it out once we know. Just... don't take your job so personally."

"But it's Olivia, Fin. She's not just my _job_; she's been a part my life for seven years. It's not something you forget."

"I know Elliot, but come on; we have a job to do now."

"If we don't do something then Olivia could end up as somebody that _becomes_ a part of our job. I don't want that for her, I would never wish that on her."

"Elliot, I know what you're like now after working with you for a few years. I know that you're not the kind of guy that gives in or quits. And I know that you're strong, emotionally. You can handle this situation better if you just set your mind on something else." Fin picked up the file on Maria Ling from on his desk. "Come on; let's go talk to the girl. She's with her mother right now at their apartment over on 123rd West 154th Street."

_123rd West 154th Street, apartment of Mei Ling, 11:00 am..._

Fin knocked on the door outside the apartment as Elliot stood just behind him in the hall. "Maria Ling, detectives Tutuola and Stabler. Can we come in?" There were shuffling noises inside before a chain slid along the door and a young Asian girl appeared at the door.

"Hi there." Elliot greeted the child, stepping forward. She looked to be about seven or eight. "Is your mummy home?"

"She's inside." The girl's spoke slowly, unsure of whether to trust the two tall men looking down at her from outside the apartment

"Could you get her for us, please?" The girl nodded and disappeared, returning a moment or so later dragging an old woman by the wrist.

"Can I help you?" the lady asked groggily, holding a hand to her forehead.

"We're looking for Maria Ling." Fin spoke. "She came to our precinct last night to report a rape."

"Yes, that bastard raped my little girl. I wondered how long it would take for somebody to do something." The woman answered in her slurred speech.

"What do you mean? She only came to us last night, and we're here this morning. What more were you expecting?" Elliot asked. He wasn't entirely calm after his conversation with Cragen and it showed.

"My daughter was raped two days ago. Two days! And you've done nothing." The woman removed her hand from her head.

"Ma'am, can we come inside? Is your daughter in there?" Fin asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Yes, Maria is in her room. She hasn't come out since last night when you people sent her home." The woman stepped aside to allow the detectives in, not approving of their visit after she considered them to have rejected her daughter the night before. She showed them to Maria's room before leaving them alone and heading to a room down the hall.

"Maria?" Elliot called softly. The room was dark, but the two detectives could see the shape of a person curled up against the wall, sitting on the bed. "Maria Ling?" Elliot called again. "I'm detective Stabler and this is detective Tutuola. Can we talk to you for a little while?" The shape moved and Elliot stepped inside the room, pushing the door open.

Light was cast dimly into the room and Elliot could easily tell that it was Maria and that she had been crying. He knelt down beside the bed as Maria pulled herself away from the wall.

"You came." She whispered, sobbing lightly.

"Yeah." Elliot smiled feebly. "Can I put the light on? Or maybe open your curtains?" Maria nodded and Finn stepped in to open the curtains. Light poured into the room and Maria sat cross-legged on the bed facing Elliot.

"Hi." She looked at Elliot and smiled.

"Hi. How are you holding up?" He asked.

"I feel dirty." She replied.

"It's understandable. Did you have a shower and something to eat when you came home last night?" Maria shook her head. "I think you should do that when we go. Can you do that for me?"

"Okay." Maria agreed to Elliot's proposal. "Can you tell me what happened to you?

"Do I have to tell you everything?" She asked, wiping her eyes.

"It would help us a lot." Finn said. She nodded.

"Just start from the beginning." Elliot told her, listening as she began her story.

"Okay. I'd just got off the subway and a man came after me as I went up the stairs to the street. He forced me back down and we ended up in some really dirty place where there were homeless people living on the tracks and lots of little shelters everywhere. He kept leading me down amongst the shelters and pushed me into an alley towards the end of the line." She broke into sobs.

"It's all right." Elliot assured her, trying to get her to keep talking. This was keeping him distracted for Olivia.

"He knocked me to the ground and forced me to stay down as he covered my mouth with his hand." She struggled to contain her fear and cries. "Please... I..." She tried to stop.

"Come on Maria, you're doing a great job." Fin encouraged her to keep going. "Just finish you're story and then we'll be done." She nodded and wiped away tears.

"He kept his hand over my mouth and I felt his hand on my leg. He pulled up my skirt... and then he raped me." She broke into chest-heaving sobs and covered her face with her hands. Elliot and Fin watched Maria as she sat on her bed bawling her eyes out, shaking. Elliot remembered the statement he was reading earlier and pressed her for information.

"Maria, there were two semen samples we got from inside you. Were you raped by two men?" She looked up, still bawling, but her eyes were wide.

"No." She said, gulping down the sobs. "One man forced me down there, not two." She couldn't help herself and continued sobbing, burying her face in her hands.

"Okay, if you say so." Elliot could see that now they weren't going to get much more information out of her. Still he tried to calm her down by talking softly and calmly.

"Thank you Maria." Fin said loudly over her sobs. "We'll be sure to catch the guy who did this to you. Is there anything you can tell us about him?" She looked up again, wiping her eyes

"He had a moustache. It itched when he kissed me..." She turned away in shame. Fin signalled for Elliot to leave with him, and as Elliot got to his feet Maria's head shot up.

"Wait." She whispered, sniffling and wiping her eyes. "There's something else."

"What?" Elliot inquired.

"He smelt like flowers."

"_Flowers_?" Fin asked, thinking the comment was strange.

"We'll take that into account when we're looking for him." Elliot stepped in. "Is there anything else you can tell us about him? What he looked like, any obvious markings on his skin like a tattoo or if he had piercings?"

"No. No piercings." Maria answered. "He did have a tattoo on his wrist. I saw it as it flashed in front of my eyes."

"What was it a tattoo of?" Elliot inquired.

"An oval with the letters SWB..." Maria was fishing around for the letters. "No... WBS..."

"WSBB?" Fin offered.

"Yeah, that's it."

"Damn." Fin scowled softly, almost under his breath. He knew what those letters stood for, and instantly felt more sympathetic towards the girl. "Thank you so much for your help Maria." Fin again signalled for Elliot to leave as Maria wiped her eyes. "You've been really brave."

"We'll be in touch." Elliot followed Fin out and the two men told Mei Ling they were leaving as they headed out to the car.

"Fin, what does WSBB stand for?" Elliot asked.

"West Side Bad Boys." Fin replied. "A youth gang that prey on teenage girls. I tried to pin some of them for robbery and murder once but I ended up being beaten-up, threatened and left in a dumpster down some dark alley. The bastards were never arrested, never went to trial and got away with robbery and the murder of a shop owner. I know what these guys are like and they're no fun to mess around with." Fin explained.

"Great. They sound like a nice bunch of kids."

"They're not _all_ kids." Fin added. "Most of them are, but there are a few older ones in charge of the teens. Tough guys too, not just some piss-weak mentors. I remember clearly a bunch of 20-something's beating me to a pulp a couple of years ago. Not something you forget."

"No, I guess not." Elliot mused. "Well, apart from knowing our perp is in a gang, we know he was around flowers a lot. He had to be to smell like flowers when he attacked Maria."

"Well, why don't we start with florists then?" Fin suggested.

"I want to check in with the Captain first and see if they got a hit on where Olivia might be."

"Okay. That's fine by me."

"Maybe then we can try local florists and corner stores that sell flowers. He's obviously around them a lot." Finn could tell that Elliot was a little distracted.

"Elliot, I'm sure Munch has found something at Olivia's apartment. The Captain would let you know if they found anything significant, wouldn't he?"

"I guess." Elliot replied. "I still can't stop thinking about her... I just hope she's all right."

"Come on, she'll be fine. I promise you she'll be all right, but we've got a job to do. We'll try a couple of florists then head back to Cragen and see what Munch and Warner found."

Elliot sighed. He wanted to go back to the offices so badly, but he knew that Fin was right. They had a job to do, and he had to be focussed on that rather than Olivia. She wasn't his partner anymore, she was only his friend. Do friends get put before the job? Well, they did before...

_Corner of 125th and 116th Street, Katie's Florist, 11:37 am..._

Elliot and Fin had visited one florist and hadn't come up with anyone matching Maria's description. Nobody with tattoos, and no employees with moustaches. As they approached a corner store called _Katie's Florist_ Elliot noticed a man with a moustache loading flowers into a van out the front of the shop. He pointed the man out to Fin as they got closer.

"Hi there." Elliot greeted the man boldly, holding up his badge as they approached him. "Can we talk to you for a sec?" The man caught sight of the badge and took off in the other direction down the sidewalk. Elliot was after him in an instant, with Fin not far behind. Elliot and Fin chased the man around the corner, down the street and into an alley until they managed to trap him. Approaching him quickly, Elliot made sure to keep his eyes on the man's hands.

He was a solidly-built man, with tanned skin and a black moustache matching his stringy jet-black hair. He was the typical depiction of a gang member, and his clothes said it all. Baggy pants, a long black T-shirt with a single logo printed on the chest: a circle with the letters WSBB.

"Part of a gang are you?" Elliot said. The man showed no signs of backing down as the two officers approached.

"You're coming down to the precinct with us, understood?" Fin told the man as they both took hold of his wrists and pinned them behind his back. Fin cuffed him while Elliot stepped up to him and stood about three centimetres away from his face.

He smiled tauntingly. "How you doing?" he asked. The man stared at him, a grim smile on his face.

"Get out of my face, cop." He snarled through gritted teeth. Elliot's grin widened.

"Elliot, step away from him." Fin warned. Elliot did as he was instructed by his partner and moved away.

"What's your name?" Elliot asked.

"Derek." He replied.

"Well _Derek_," Elliot reached down pulled up his sleeve to reveal a WSBB tattoo on his wrist. "You're under arrest for the rape of Maria Ling. You have the right to remain silent. If you choose to give up that right, anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. You have the right to an attorney; if you cannot afford one, one will be appointed to you at the government's expense." Fin and Elliot walked Derek to the car before driving back to the precinct.

_NYPD: SVU squad room, 12:10 am…_

Fin marched Derek into a cell before locking the door and heading after Elliot who had made his way to Captain Cragen's office.

"Captain." Elliot barged in through the open door. "Do you have any news?"

"Elliot, why don't you take a seat." Cragen said gravely. Elliot's heart sank.

"What is it? You... did you find Olivia?"

"No Elliot, but the blood in Olivia's apartment is hers. I'm sorry, but other than that we don't know anything. There's nothing there to tell us where she's gone, but there were signs of a struggle. One of her curtains was torn, but there's no evidence been presented to me that says anyone else was in her apartment."

"Captain, somebody _had_ to be in her apartment. Put it all together; the ripped curtain, the signs of struggle all say that somebody _was _in there with her last night. There's not other way to explain it."

"Elliot, I know you're upset; we all are. There's unfortunately nothing we can do at the moment until Warner and Munch finish processing anything else they might have found in Olivia's apartment."

"Can I go and see what they've got?" Elliot asked.

"You have a job to do Elliot." Cragen snapped. "I know you're worried but let them handle it." Elliot was about to protest when Cragen spoke again. "How did you go talking to Maria Ling?"

Sighing, Elliot answered. "She gave us a description of the man who attacked her and we followed the lead to some florists in the local area. We arrested a man named Derek who matched her description, but we still have to interview him."

"Has he asked for a lawyer?"

"No, not yet."

"Right. Go interview him then. Keep yourself busy and I'll let you know if anything progresses in Olivia's case."

"Olivia is a case now?"

"She's technically a Missing Persons case but it's personal so I pulled a few strings and organised so that we can work the case. Munch is on it now with Warner, so as I said, don't worry. We'll find her Elliot, just give us some time."

"Time may be what Olivia doesn't have Captain. Please, I can't stand not knowing anything."

"Elliot, you know as much as the rest of us. I _will_ tell you if we find anything else. I promise." Elliot smiled feebly in acceptance of the Captain's terms. "Now please, go do your job."

_12:50..._

Elliot had interviewed Derek and discovered that his full name was Derek Hawke and that he was a long-time member of the West Side Bad Boys. He was taken in by the gang as a 13 year-old when his brother joined as a 16 year-old. Their parents died from a drug overdose and they had nowhere to go so the gang took care of them and supported them. It was a good life, or so Derek had told Elliot.

"Captain, I think Derek is our guy. I need a DNA sample from him to confirm a match to the samples Warner got from Maria, but he definitely fits her description of her rapist." Elliot explained to Cragen as he entered the Captain's office.

"Good work Elliot." Cragen praised. "He still hasn't asked for a lawyer yet, right?

"No."

"All right then. Go and see if he'll give you a DNA sample. Try and make him co-operate."

A/N: Another chapter of this done. I hope people like reading this as much as I enjoy writing it. It's great to really get into the characters and learn to write for them... I'm still learning, but it's fun. I will say now that there was at least one Aussie-spelt word in there... "mummy"... if anybody has a real problem with me not using American spelling then I will change it, no problems. Just thought I'd mention it. I don't think it makes a difference. Anyway, reviews are most welcome. (Hint, hint)


	3. Chapter 3

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything. Dick Wolf created the Law and Order franchise so all the props go to him.

RATING: MA15+ at least, possibly even R for moderate to high level violence and/or torturous scenes, sexual references and/or themes, adult themes and low-level coarse language. I think that's all… just to be safe.

**THE FOLLOWING IS FICTIONAL AND NO ACTUAL PERSON OR EVENT IS DEPICTED**

**The Hard Life**

**CHAPTER THREE: Scenes Across Town**

_New York, Friday April 28th 2006, a disused factory, 8:32 am..._

"It's nearly time, Olivia." Liam Olsen whispered to his prisoner. She was drowsy, swaying slightly as she sat leaning against a wooden post inside the factory they were in. Liam had tied her hands behind her back, around the post. She wasn't going anywhere.

"What do you want from me?" she asked groggily, looking up as her eyes struggled to gain focus and see her surroundings. Her head ached, as did the rest of her body.

"I don't want anything from you, Olivia." His voice was taunting, telling her that he was lying.

"What do you want?" She repeated. Liam frowned.

"Well since you asked, I want you dead." He told her bluntly. "But not yet, not until I get what I _really_ want."

"You're not getting anything except for a needle in your arm." Olivia snarled, straightening herself up as her vision came into focus and she saw Liam pacing around before her. She was sure it wasn't him who had kidnapped her two nights ago; his voice and body shape were different.

"Now, now; there's no need for that, Olivia." Liam approached her and slapped her hard across the face. "So shut up unless I tell you to speak!" Olivia knew that Liam was a loose cannon, but someone at the precinct had to be figuring out how to get her back. They _must_ have known she was missing by now. It had been a whole day; surely Elliot of all people would notice her absence.

As Olivia held onto the comforting thought that someone was coming for her, she tried to block out the pain of the injuries that were only just becoming obvious to her. Liam must have drugged her, because although she could see and feel her wounds, they didn't feel nearly as bad as they looked.

Her right upper-arm was bleeding, but the blood had mostly dried. The wound must have been hours old, but this was the first time that Olivia had been awake to notice it. Her cargo pants were torn slightly in random places on each leg, as if a knife had sliced through them. The edges of the slices were saturated with blood, and Olivia's best guess was that Liam had cut into her flesh deep enough to bleed but not too deep that she couldn't move them or walk on them if she had to. Her face was also sore and she could feel dry blood on her skin; solid crusty masses and deep red stains.

But Liam didn't care about any of this. Olivia knew that it was revenge he was after, because it wasn't just the fact that she and Elliot had arrested him five years earlier but that they had broken his confidence. He was a strong-willed man before he was arrested; kidnapping all those girls to fulfil a fantasy of a power-trip. He _hated_ being stopped from getting what he wanted, and knew that to gain back that power over his life, his actions and his past he had to exact revenge on those who stole it from him in the first place. One of the two people responsible was Olivia.

_NYPD: SVU squad room, Captain Cragen's office, 9:00 am…_

"It's been more than 24 hours Captain, we have to do _something_. Isn't there some way of finding her that we haven't tried yet?"

"I don't know Elliot. I'm pretty sure Liam Olsen is behind this, but we have no way of proving it and no way of finding him. At the moment, we've got nothing. _I've_ got nothing, and I'm sorry Elliot but it's going to take some time to work something out."

"Captain, I..." Elliot tried to protest.

"I know you're concerned, Elliot." Cragen interrupted him. "I know that, but I also know that right now I can't help with that. I've got Munch and Fin out already checking out Liam's place to see what they can come up with, but other than that we've pretty much got nothing." Elliot was silent for a few seconds.

"Captain, have you tried calling Olivia's cell phone?" He suggested, a wave of hope rushing through him at the thought that maybe he could get her back.

"Give it a go. Get out your cell and call her." Cragen answered. Elliot reached into his coat and pulled out his cell phone, dialling Olivia's number out of his phonebook. Her number was at the very top.

_Brrrp. Brrrp._ The phone rang twice before somebody answered it.

"Hello?" It was Olivia.

"Jesus, Olivia!" Elliot cried. Cragen's eyes flew open as he looked up giving Elliot and the phone call his complete attention. "Where are you?"

"Elliot..." Olivia breathed. Elliot could tell that something was wrong. He didn't know that Liam was holding Olivia hostage. He didn't know that he was holding the phone to her ear and a knife to her throat. He didn't know that Liam was forcing her to say exactly what he told her or else he'd kill her.

"Olivia, what's wrong?" Elliot pressed. "Where are you?"

"I... I can't." Olivia choked out as she desperately tried to hold back tears. "I'm scared Elliot." He'd never heard he say that before, not once. Something was definitely wrong and Elliot was trying to find out as much as he could. The expression on his face told Cragen that there was something going on.

"Olivia, tell me where you are." Elliot said.

"Help me..." There was a grunt and then silence.

"Olivia?" Elliot called down the phone line. She hadn't hung up. "Olivia. Olivia!"

"Elliot, what's going on?" Cragen demanded. Fin and Munch ran into the office as they heard Elliot's shouts.

"Did you find Olivia?" Fin asked as they appeared at the door.

"Elliot, what did she say?" Cragen demanded again.

"She said... she's scared." Grim expressions appeared on everybody's faces. "She begged for help."

"Elliot, we're gonna catch that bastard I promise you." Cragen said directly to Elliot. "At least now we can get a trace on Olivia's phone." Elliot was on the verge of shaking and collapsing to the floor.

_Olivia's in danger. She's possibly dead or dying and I can't do a damn thing about it. She's helpless, scared and needs me... but I can't be there for her. God how I hate this feeling..._

"Elliot." Cragen said the detective's name a little louder each time, trying to break his concentration which was clearly elsewhere. "Elliot!" His head suddenly shot up as he realised he was still standing in Cragen's office.

"I... I have to get out of here." He stammered.

"Elliot, go get changed. Get some fresh air and come back when you're ready."

"No. Captain, you don't understand. I'm not going to be_ ready_ to come back here. Not right now at least, not with things how they are. Olivia's been kidnapped, she begged for my help and I know that I can't give it to her. Do you have any idea how that feels?" His face was burning and his eyes were wide with shock, confusion and anger. What was he meant to do?

"Elliot, you've got to hold yourself together. We can't get Olivia back without your help."

"I know Captain, but... I just..."

"Come on Elliot; let's go grab some coffee outside and just calm down a bit." Fin suggested, placing a hand on his friend's back. Elliot rolled his shoulder blades and moved away from Fin.

"No, I don't want coffee. I don't want fresh air and I don't want to..." He paused, lost for words. His friends and fellow detectives was seeing a side of Elliot they'd rarely seen; the hurt and emotionally injured Elliot who was beginning to fall apart. "... be anywhere."

"Elliot, I know you're upset by this news, but you have to hold yourself together. If not for yourself, do it for Olivia." Elliot struggled with the temptation to give in now, instead forcing the thought into his mind that he was going to help Olivia as she had asked. He was going to save her, protect her and return her to safety however he could.

"Captain, tell me what you want me to do or I'll find my own way to getting her back." He said wilfully, trying to compose himself.

"Don't you trust us to get her back? Don't you believe we can?" Cragen demanded.

"No Captain, I just..." He sighed, finally managing to fully compose himself. "I need her back Captain, you have to understand... I need her back."

Cragen nodded. "Munch, Fin; what did you find at Liam's place?"

"Not much. He's packed a little; there's an empty box on the bed with a few bits of loose change in the bottom, meaning he's cleared it out recently. There's some clothes missing from his drawers and in his kitchen we found..." Munch paused, glancing over at Elliot who looked up.

"Found what?" Cragen asked.

"A large knife appeared to be missing from a knife block on the countertop. He has a weapon." Elliot looked back down at the floor.

"Okay. Munch, go talk to Liam's parole officer to see if he called in sometime last night before taking off and Fin and Elliot I want you to check out local supermarkets and gas stations with video surveillance."

"The bastard must have stopped to pick up supplies before moving out of town." Fin commented.

"Nobody said anything about him leaving town." Cragen replied. "We need to narrow down the search. Find anything you can and report back here as soon as you've got anything."

Munch left the room silently on his own, and Fin went to leave as well but stopped to wait for Elliot. "You coming El?" he asked.

"Yeah." Elliot sighed and followed after Fin.

"Elliot." Cragen said loudly just before Elliot had left the office. Fin kept walking.

"Yeah?"

"We'll get her back." He wasn't sure about that at this stage because he wasn't sure where she was, but he had to keep Elliot's hopes up. He couldn't have one of his best detectives falling apart and being useless to their cause.

"I know." Elliot replied simply. He forced a weak smile before following Fin out into the squad room.

_House of Rupert Elton, 156th Street, 9:25 am…_

Munch knocked on the door of Liam's parole officer's house. A chain slid before the door was opened, and Munch had his badge out in his hand ready.

"I'm detective John Munch," he introduced himself. Rupert introduced himself with an extended hand.

"Rupert Elton. How can I help you today detective?"

"Two detectives came by here yesterday." Munch began. "They inquired about a man named Liam Olsen?"

"Yes, I remember them. They were quite satisfied with the help I offered them." Rupert stepped aside and let Munch in. "What else can I help you with regarding Liam?"

"Did he come by here last night?" They headed into the living room and found a chair.

"Yeah, he has to check in every night and he came by just before curfew last night."

"Did he have anyone with him?"

"No, he said he'd been at the pub and that he was just going to head home and get some rest." Rupert answered.

"Well we've investigating Liam for the kidnap of a friend of mine; one of the detectives I work with."

"Oh my, that's certainly a step up for Liam." Rupert commented, a little shocked at the accusation. "I know Liam was arrested for kidnapping children but kidnapping a police officer? That's beyond most people."

"Well, Liam has a reason to kidnap this detective. She and her partner, one of the detectives you spoke to yesterday were the ones responsible for his arrest."  
"I see. Well, all I can suggest is trying his place down the street and seeing if he's home."

"We've already visited Liam's place this morning and there's evidence that he's left recently."

"Then I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do to help you detective. He'll have to check in for curfew tonight, and if he doesn't then I'll give you a call straight away."

"Thank you. I'll give you the number of the detective you should call." Munch scribbled down Elliot's cell phone number on a piece of paper and gave it to Rupert.

"I'll call you if he shows up." Munch got to his feet and headed towards the front door.

"Thank you."

_A gas station, 9:42 am…_

Fin and Elliot approached the front desk at the gas station. A young African-American man was behind the counter. Elliot spoke first, holding up his badge straight away before even giving the man a chance to speak.

"Detectives Stabler and Tutuola." Elliot introduced. "You keep surveillance tapes here?"

"Yeah." The man replied.

"What's your name?" Elliot demanded.

"Rudi."

"Well, Rudi, do you think you could get those tapes for us?"

"I'll have to check with my manager but I should be able to give 'em to you." Rudi turned to the back of the store and shouted a name. "Des! Desmond!"

A man appeared from a door at the back of the store and approached the desk. "What's the matter Rudi?" He turned to Elliot and Fin. "Can I help you gentlemen?"

"I'm Detective Stabler and this is Detective Tutuola." Elliot held up his badge, as did Fin. "We need video surveillance tapes for last night and this morning."

"Sure, I'll just go and get them for you officers. Can I ask what this is about?"

"No." Elliot jumped in quickly. Fin frowned at him.

"We're investigating a kidnapping and we need the surveillance tapes. Could you get 'em for us now please?" Desmond hurried out the back and returned a few minutes later with a stack of half a dozen videos.

"These are all the tapes after 7pm last night right up until 7am this morning. I hope this can help you in your search." Desmond handed over the tapes and Elliot took them, snapping a quick goodbye and thank you as he left the store. Fin followed after him, seeing how distressed he was.

"El! Elliot, wait up!" He was walking fast across the gas station carpark, leaving Fin trailing behind. When they both reached the car, Fin tried to talk some sense into Elliot. "Look man, I know you're worried about Olivia but you're not helping by being aggressive."

"Give me a break, okay?" Elliot snapped. "I'm falling apart without her." Fin saw the expression on his face and the fear in his eyes. "She was so scared Fin, she begged for me to help her and I can't. Not yet, because I don't know where she is. I can't get to her, I can't help her and I sure as hell can't save her from whatever that bastard Liam is doing to her. I... I can't even think about it, it's so sickening. I swear I'm gonna kill that bastard when I find him."

"Elliot, just calm down. You need to be focussed so we can find Olivia faster. You know that if you're off-balance or not focussing on what has to be done then you're gonna miss something important."

"Fin, just drop it, okay? Just let it go. I'll do my job, but when I find Liam he's getting no mercy from me." Fin nodded solemnly as the two detectives got back into the car. Elliot sat quietly in the passenger seat as Fin drove to the next gas station.

_NYPD: SVU squad room, Captain Cragen's office, 11:00 am…_

Elliot, Fin and Munch had returned from their morning investigations and had gathered in Cragen's office.

"What have we got?" Captain Cragen asked.

"We picked up some surveillance tapes from a couple of gas station towards the outskirts of the city and all we have to do now is watch through them and see if Liam stopped by one during the night." Fin answered.

"Okay, it's a start." Cragen seemed disappointed.

"I went and had a talk with Liam's parole officer Rupert Elton and he said that Liam called in just before curfew last night saying that he was drunk and was going home." Munch told his story. "I gave him Elliot's cell phone number and he's going to call you as soon as Liam comes back."

"Liam's not coming back John," Elliot snapped.

"He's got to come back before curfew tonight." Munch added.

"He's. Not. Coming. Back." Elliot repeated, with emphasised pauses between his words.

"Elliot, your attitude is not appreciated." Cragen warned. Elliot turned to him.

"Captain, I can't help but feel angry." He tried to explain calmly.

"Well, control your anger or I'll have no choice but to put you off this case." Elliot's jaw dropped.

"You wouldn't." He snarled. "Captain, I need to know where Olivia is. I can't do that if I'm not working this case."

"Then you better keep your attitude in check or I'll be forced to reassign you to another case." Elliot shook his head miserably. He couldn't believe it; the Captain was telling him that if he slipped up he was off the case. He was furious! Keeping the Captain's warning in mind he kept his cool and stepped out of the circle, backing away a few steps. Munch continued.

"What are we supposed to do now?"

"All three of you go watch those tapes. If you see Liam, let me know." Cragen ordered.

_Brrrp. Brrrp._ Elliot's cell phone rang. Fin, Munch and Cragen turned their eyes to Elliot as he pulled his cell phone out of his coat. He looked down at the screen to the name displayed as the caller.

OLIVIA.

"It's Olivia." Elliot announced.

"Put in on speaker Elliot." Cragen ordered. Elliot nodded, set it to speaker and placed the phone on the Captain's desk. He sat down in a chair, leant forward and rested his elbows on his knees, clasping his hands behind his head. Suddenly he looked up and reached out to press a button on his phone to answer the call. The others were silent.

"Hello?" Elliot said loudly as he fearfully took the call.

"Elliot?" It was Olivia's voice. She sounded as terrified as Elliot felt.

"Olivia..." Elliot breathed.

"I... I need to ask you something."

"Anything you need Liv."

"He says you have to come here."

"Where's _here_?" Elliot asked.

"I can't tell you. Not yet." Olivia replied. Everyone in the office could hear her start to cry. "Elliot, I'm so scared. He says he's going to kill me." Elliot whole body perked up as soon as he heard those words.

"No. No Olivia, he's not going to kill you. I won't let him."

"Elliot, please help me." Elliot desperately forced back tears as he inched closer to the phone on the desk.

"I'm coming for you Olivia; I just... I need to know where you are. Tell me, where are you?"

"I can't tell you. He says that once you're alone we'll give you the details."

_They know I'm not alone_? Elliot thought. He exchanged glances with the others in the room whose expressions were grave and looked as though they were about to break down and cry.

"Olivia, I am alone." Elliot lied. A strong wave of fear came over him as he said those words, afraid that Olivia might have to pay for his lies.

"Ah!" She shrieked. Elliot cringed, as did the others in the room. Cragen put his hand to his mouth and slid it down off his chin. "Elliot, he knows you're lying." She whispered through sobs.

"How the fuck does he know, Olivia?" Elliot was losing his temper. "Ask him. Ask him how he knows where I am."

There was silence for a few seconds before Olivia spoke again.

"Because someone's watching you."

"_Watching me_?" Elliot cried. "Bastard..."

"Elliot... please..." Olivia begged. His bad language and temper were costing her. "... Please help me."

"Olivia, we're doing everything we can." Elliot told her. "I promise you that we're going to get you back. I promise. Please, just hold on."

Silence.

"Olivia?" Elliot said loudly. There was still silence. "Olivia. Olivia!"

"I'm still here Elliot." Olivia replied almost too casually.

"Olivia, I..." Elliot tried to speak but Olivia interrupted him.

"He says I have to hang up."

"Olivia, don't hang up." Elliot ordered. "_Do not hang up the phone_."

"I don't have a choice Elliot; he said he wants me to tell you that we'll be in touch."

There was a click, followed by a few seconds of silence and a dial tone that continued on until Captain Cragen reached out and pressed the call end button.

Elliot couldn't look up. Cragen, Munch and Fin were statues, now unable to move from fear, anger, worry and hurt that one of their friends was the captive of a dangerous man. Knowing was so painfully, but all they could think about now was _not_ knowing. That would be torture.

_A disused factory, 3:24 pm..._

Olivia lay unconscious on the floor of the factory. Hours had passed since Elliot had spoken to her and Liam had knocked her out immediately after the phone call ended. By this stage she was a broken and battered body, but she was still alive.

"_Oh Olivia, how could I have let this happen to you_?" Liam mocked Elliot as he circled Olivia's body. "_How could I have left you alone with such a monster_?" He instantly changed the tone in his voice from mocking to angry. "You son of a bitch, this isn't over. This isn't the end." He looked up at the windows high above, at the setting sun. "Just you wait, it's nearly time."

_NYPD: SVU squad room, Captain Cragen's Office, 3:54 pm…_

Elliot, Fin, Munch and Captain Cragen had come back together again hours after Elliot's conversation with Olivia. They had watched the surveillance tapes confiscated from various gas stations in a 5 kilometre radius from Olivia's apartment and had come up with a lead.

"Did you get _anything _off those tapes?" Cragen asked his detectives.

"Yes Captain, Liam stopped in at a gas station on the west side of the city at 11:58 pm last night." Munch informed Cragen. "The desk clerk at that time called in sick today but I spoke to him and he remembered Liam."

"That's good work John." Cragen praised. "So he can give us a positive ID of Liam at that gas station at that time?"

"Yes." Munch replied.

"Okay. What did he buy? Just gas?"

"No. He bought some... um... assorted items." Munch glanced awkwardly at Elliot. Cragen picked it up immediately.

"What _assorted items_?" He demanded.

"Duct tape, some newspapers, three bottles of water and some snack foods."

Elliot's head shot up at the words _duct tape_.

"Bastard..." he mumbled.

"Elliot, we don't know what that tape is going to be used for."

"Sure we don't!" Elliot snapped. "He could be fixing a broken pipe or a piece of furniture in his mansion with his ten cats running around the house; all of which he loves and adores." Munch picked up on Elliot's sarcasm early, and throughout the insult his expression was stern and impatient.

"Elliot, you're not helping." Cragen told him. "I warned you about losing your temper on this case. Don't make me do something I'll regret."

"Captain, just let me deal with this in my own way, all right? It's all I can do." Cragen considered Elliot's half-apology and let him off with another warning instead of taking action.

"Elliot, this is your last warning. You lose it again and you're off the case." Elliot nodded, understanding that he was pushing it already.

"What am I going to do about finding Olivia? She said she'd contact me again when I was alone."

"Then go be alone." Cragen told him. Elliot didn't move at first. "Elliot, this is all we have now. She's going to tell you where she is. You have to go, wait for the call and then call us when you know where she is."

"Okay." Elliot nodded. "I'll call as soon as I know." Elliot got up and left the office, Fin, Munch and Cragen watching as he disappeared after grabbing his coat.

"God, I hope she calls soon." Cragen sighed.

"At least we have leads now." Fin added positively. "Do you want us to interview that guy Elliot and I arrested yesterday?"

"Maria Ling's rapist?"

"So says Maria." Fin answered.

"Okay. Go keep yourselves busy."

_Outside the precinct, 4:02 pm…_

_Brrrp. Brrrp_. Elliot's cell phone rang in his pocket as he was about to get into his car. He pulled it out and looked down at the screen.

OLIVIA.

"Hello?" He answered. "Olivia?"

"Hello Elliot." A sly voice snarled. Elliot knew who it was.

"Liam."

"That's right Elliot, now be a good cop and get into your car."

"Tell me where Olivia is." Elliot demanded.

"Ah, ah, ah. We're not playing by your rules Elliot. You get in the car and I'll tell you where Olivia is." Elliot had to believe him, because he felt eyes watching him and knew that he wasn't going back inside.

He climbed into the driver's seat of the car and closed the door. "There, I'm in my car now tell me where she is." Elliot demanded again.

"I'm going to hang up." Liam told him.

"No! I did what you told me Liam; now _tell me where Olivia is_!"

"Elliot, don't lose your temper." Liam toyed with him. "My tracer is going to ring you in about 30 seconds. You will stay in the car and you will follow his instructions to find Olivia."

"This is not a game you bastard, tell me _now_."

"Elliot, this is not how things are going to go down. Do as you're told or Olivia dies." Elliot's heart sank.

"No. I'll wait." Elliot told him.

"All right then. Goodbye Elliot, I'll be seeing you soon."

_Click_.

Elliot waited. He looked up at the window to Cragen's office. God how he wished Cragen would see him and come down. He had to tell them what was happening. Could he make a quick phone call? No, there wasn't time. He did the only thing he could do and quickly composed a text message to send to Fin's cell phone. He knew Fin would get the text message, and just hoped that he could get it done in time before his phone rang.

FINDING OLIVIA. DIRECTIONS GIVEN. FOLLOW ME.

A simple message that couldn't go wrong. He pressed send and not 2 seconds later the cell phone in his hands began vibrating.

_Brrrp. Brrrp_.

"Elliot answered. "Hello?"

"Elliot."

"Who are you?" Elliot asked.

"No questions." The man had an American accent, so he wasn't a foreigner. However, his voice sounded different. It didn't take long for Elliot to realise he was an African-American.

"Okay." Elliot was a little nervous. He was desperate to find Olivia and would do anything to get to her. "Where do I go?"

"Pull out and take the next right." The voice instructed. "If something goes wrong, I can see."

"What do I call you if I need to get your attention?"

"I'll be watching." He replied. "But you can call me Butcher. Now drive."

Author's Note: America calls petrol stations gas stations, right? That means that gas is also petrol, right? Hopefully I got that right because otherwise people might get confused. Well, another chapter up. Please review.


	4. Chapter 4

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything. Dick Wolf created the Law and Order franchise so all the props go to him.

RATING: MA15+ at least, possibly even R for moderate to high level violence and/or torturous scenes, sexual references and/or themes, adult themes and low to medium level coarse language. I think that's all… just to be safe.

**THE FOLLOWING IS FICTIONAL AND NO ACTUAL PERSON OR EVENT IS DEPICTED**

**The Hard Life**

**CHAPTER FOUR: Confrontation **

_New York, Friday April 28th 2006, a disused factory, 5:14 pm..._

After following the directions of the voice on the phone he knew only as Butcher, Elliot finally arrived at a factory where he was led to believe that Olivia was being held prisoner by Liam. Elliot pulled up outside the factory and glanced down at the screen of his cell phone that was resting in his lap. His battery was running low.

"I have to hang up." He told Butcher, bringing the phone up to his ear. "I've stopped and the battery is running low on my cell phone."

"Get out of the car." Butcher ordered before hanging up. Elliot hung up as well and climbed out of his car. He thought of the tracer hidden away inside his ear, and he hoped that Fin, Cragen and James knew where he was and that the tiny mechanical device hadn't failed.

Looking around, Elliot saw a black van pull up about 20 metres away on the opposite side of the road. He recognised it instantly; it had been following behind him for ages. He suspected that it was Liam's 'shadow'.

An African-American man stepped out of the van, wearing dirty black jeans and a blue singlet revealing tattoos on his arms, shoulders and back. He had short black hair and a cleanly-shaven chin and had a stern expression plastered across his face. "Start walking inside." He ordered in a loud voice, pulling a gun from behind his back as he walked across the street towards Elliot.

Elliot began taking small steps backwards towards a large metal gate that was open, with his hands slightly raised. He wasn't cowering away, just trying to avoid having a gun eventually shoved in his face. Butcher continued to approach, fast. The gun was raised and pointed at Elliot, but he couldn't back away quick enough with out looking like a wimp.

For every two steps Elliot took, Butcher had made more than twice that many. He was closing in, and Elliot didn't dare look away. When Butcher was only about a metre away, he spoke.

"Stop being a coward. Stand your ground." He instructed. Elliot instantly stopped.

"Where's Olivia?" He asked. "Is she here? Is she inside?" Butcher frowned and took a slow menacing step towards Elliot. Trying to fight his fear for the man, Elliot stood his ground. Butcher grinned.

"There." He said. "Now you're much more of a man; only mice run away." Elliot was ready to reach out and swing at Butcher, but the gun still pointed at him made him think the move through again.

"Tell me, is she here?" Elliot demanded again, trying to make Bucher see that he wasn't a wimp at all. He was serious about finding Olivia.

"I can't tell you that just yet."

"What _can_ you tell me?" Elliot pressed. "Is she still alive?"

"Barely." Elliot's eyes went wide with fear and anger. "So I've heard."

"Son of a bitch." Elliot snarled. "Did you do something to her?" He knocked the gun out of Butcher's hands and grabbed his singlet, pulling him close. "Did you hurt her? Huh? Was it Liam or was it you?" Butcher struggled for a moment before flipping his left elbow up hard and suddenly, knocking Elliot in the side of the head. He stumbled, releasing Butcher from his grip. Butcher took the opportunity to grab Elliot by his coat and throw him to the ground.

Rolling several times, Elliot tried to evade Butcher and get back up. Butcher didn't allow this, following Elliot as he tried to get away. He kicked Elliot in the ribs, hearing a loud and painful cry in response.

"Are you accusing me of hurting that bitch?" Butcher demanded, giving Elliot another kick. "I couldn't give a damn about her." He kicked again, hearing groans of protest at his feet. "She's not my problem, Liam is." Another kick and painful cry. "And he's your problem too." Another kick. "You should be more worried about yourself and Liam than your pretty cop friend." With one final kick into Elliot's side, Butcher took a step back and stared down at the man lying helplessly at his feet.

Now on his back, Elliot was gasping for air. He feared that one or more of his ribs were broken after the beating he'd just received, but wasn't about to say anything about it to Butcher. He couldn't show signs of weakness, even though he felt as if his lungs were about to explode. The black man towered above him, looking down with a smug grin on his face. He looked at Elliot as if he had total power and total control, and he did. Elliot was helpless and unable to fight back; it was pointless to even try.

"Get up, Elliot." Butcher instructed when he saw that Elliot's breathing had regulated. "Stop being such a wimp and get up."

Without saying a word, Elliot rolled onto his knees and tried to pull himself up. He had difficulty, as his sides, ribs and stomach ached from where he'd been repeatedly kicked. He wished he had the strength to jump at Butcher, because he knew that he'd be able to kill the man. After learning about Olivia's condition he was able to do anything now.

"Now walk into that factory." As Elliot got to his feet, Butcher instructed further, pointing with the gun he had picked up. Elliot walked painfully through the metal gate and towards the towering factory, limping and clutching his ribs with one arm. He had no choice but to do what Butcher told him if he wanted to find Olivia alive, and stay alive himself. Or at least, in one piece.

_NYPD: SVU squad room, Captain Cragen's Office, 5:49 pm…_

"Have you got anything James?" Cragen asked.

"The signal has been stationary at a location west of here, in the old factory district. It hasn't moved for some time, so I'm guessing that it's where Elliot's been led to."

"Thanks James. Keep an eye on that and tell me if anything changes."

"You got it Captain."

"I'm going to find my detectives."

_5:53 pm..._

"So Derek, you say you were at the subway station that night?" Munch asked. The interrogation of Derek Hawke didn't seem to be getting any further now than it was when Elliot had interrogated him.

"Yes. I caught the subway in the evening home from work. I'm allowed to catch public transport, aren't I?" Derek was pushing it, and Munch and Fin weren't in the mood to be toyed with.

"Listen Derek; don't push us all right? We're going to get a court order demanding that you give us a DNA sample unless you comply with our wishes. Do you want to do this the hard way?"

"I want a lawyer." Derek replied. "I've answered all your questions and now you're just being plain rude. I want my lawyer, now."

Munch sighed, and signalled to Fin to leave. They got up from the table and approached the door. As Munch opened it, Captain Cragen stared back at the two detectives.

"We know where Elliot is. Get the team out there and go find Olivia."

"Derek wants a lawyer and is refusing to give us a DNA sample." Fin informed Cragen as they walked out of the squad room.

"Derek can wait. I'll call his lawyer but we've got more important things to worry about. He can sit for a while until we know what's happening with Olivia."

"Right Captain. We'll go meet up with the teams and get out there." Munch and Fin parted from Captain Cragen, and headed off to find James and the storm teams. They were both praying that Olivia was all right.

_A disused factory, 5:58 pm..._

Butcher had marched Elliot inside the factory and now the two men were wandering around trying to find where Liam was.

"Liam!" Butcher yelled loudly. He was getting annoyed. "Liam!"

"Butcher?"

Butcher realised that Liam was closer than he had originally guessed; just around the corner from where he and Elliot were. He instructed Elliot to open a closed door, which revealed a small office. Elliot was led across the room and through another door, back into the factory's main frame.

"Butcher, have you got Elliot?" Liam asked as they got closer.

"Got him."

"Good." Following the voice, Elliot turned a corner around some multicoloured shipping crates to find Liam. He was leaning against a crate, with one leg tucked up and the sole of his boot resting flat on the side of the crate. A cigarette was held firmly between his index finger and thumb, and he brought it to his mouth to take one last puff before stamping it into the cement floor.

"Liam." Elliot breathed.

"Nice to see you again Elliot. It was good of you to come; I didn't know if you'd have the guts to come alone."

"Well, obviously you don't know me that well." Elliot snapped.

"I know you well enough to know that the way to get to you is to go through Olivia." Elliot's eyes narrowed. "You're too predictable Elliot, you need to toughen up and stop going soft every time Olivia comes into the equation."

"Shut up." Elliot snapped. "You don't know anything about me _or_ Olivia so just shut up."

"Now, now Elliot there's no need to be like that. We can have a civilised conversation here can't we? We're both grown men, so why don't we act like some?" Elliot scowled and watched Liam's every movement. "Here, take a seat." Liam signalled to Butcher who was still standing behind Elliot, and Elliot felt him press the gun against his back to make him start walking. Liam gestured to a chair sitting against a support post for a small balcony above, and Butcher forced Elliot down onto it with a forceful shove. Elliot glared up at Butcher as he stepped away, then over at Liam as he approached.

He looked so much different to when Elliot had last seen him. His hair had darkened to a heavy brown; almost black. His face was notably older, even though it had only been five years since they'd seen each other. He was now a 27 year-old, and although he was still young he looked as if he had aged ten years in the time he had been in prison. He was well-built, with muscly arms and legs. He reminded Elliot of a friend his father had when he was a child, a man looking to get into a career in boxing. Liam could have definitely pulled it off now. The thought scared Elliot, and he forced it to the back of his mind.

"Now Elliot, where do I begin?" Liam asked.

"You can start by telling me where Olivia is." Elliot replied.

"Now that would just be too simple." Liam expression darkened. "We need to have a chat first."

"A chat?"

"Yes. There's a little thing called _my life_!" Liam suddenly snapped. "You _ruined_ it Elliot, you _ruined_ it." Elliot opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted. "You sent me to a place that wrecked everything, Elliot. You sent me to prison, where every man has a death wish. I tried everything to survive in there; I just wanted to get out, to get away from that place."

"I'm sorry you feel that way about your stay in prison Liam, but you broke the law. You brought it on yourself."

"No, it's not that simple Elliot. I was raped in prison because _you_ stopped me, caught me, arrested me and sent me there. I was a black man's bitch for three years of my life, Elliot. Three years! That's a long time to suffer the same horrible daily fate, but I swear for what you put me through I'll make yours last longer."

"Liam, I'm sorry for what happened to you in prison, I really am." Elliot realised that maybe he should show some sympathy to Liam, even if it was only as an act. "Nobody should have to go through what you did, and I'm truly sorry that you think it's my fault."

"Because it _is_ your fault!" Liam snapped. 'You're the one who sent me there and you're the one who made sure that I had a lengthy sentence so that I paid for what I did. The thing is that you never knew why I did it. You tried so hard to work it out, but you never got it, did you?"

"No, Liam. I still don't know why you took those seven girls. What was it about them that made you feel like you needed to _rape_ and _kill_ them to make yourself a better man?"

"Power." Liam replied. "It's all about power; power over them and now, power over you." Liam grinned.

"You can't be serious. There was _never_ anything emotional in it for you? Nothing for you to truly gain?"

"No. Nothing but power, Elliot. That's something you should understand."

"And why is that?"

"Because _you_ have no power, no control. You should know what it's like for me. I never had a stable childhood, never had a father who loved me. My mother was an addict and it was just me and my little brother always relying on each other to try and survive. I've always struggled; my whole life I found it so hard to find a common ground with everyone else. I was never like them. I never held a steady relationship, a good job or had a family I could go to when I needed help or support or advice. Holidays were just another time of trauma for me, and I never felt like I ever had power or control over anything."

"Liam, you had a hard life, so what? What do you expect me to do about it?"

"I expected you to help me."

"_Help you_? Why on earth would I wanna help you? You raped a killed six girls! Do you call that a cry for help?"

"Yes! I needed help, Elliot. Everything was still so out of control I couldn't tell what I was doing. I just did it and it felt right."

"How could raping children feel _right_?" Elliot challenged angrily.

"Stop it!" Liam cried suddenly. "Stop it, you're twisting this around!"

"No Liam, you're lying to cover up your guilt. You're feeling it now, aren't you? You can't take it and you know now that it's not that you're life is out of control it's that _you_ are out of control."

"No! Stop it!"

"Liam!" Elliot shouted over Liam's protests. "Where is Olivia? End this now."

"No! You're not getting her Elliot, this is _not_ over."

"Let it be over Liam, come on don't do this."

"Don't beg like a little girl, Elliot. You're a man. Act like one."

"Liam..."

"What, did you think you could just come in here today, get Olivia and take her back with you? What, are you some kind of hero or something?" Liam answered his own half-rhetorical question. "No, Elliot. You're not a hero; you're an out of control cop. You're just like me, only you have one thing on your mind. The girl."

"No, you're wrong." Elliot protested. "I'm not like you. And my job means everything to me; not the girl. My job is what's on my mind, but I do still care about Olivia."

"You're pathetic Elliot, you're just so pathetic. I can't believe you, honestly!" Elliot's eyes narrowed as Liam's comments started to get to him. "You ruined my life and now you come here to try and be a hero? You can't be both, Elliot. You can't ruin one life and save another. It just doesn't work that way. You either lose or gain, all out. There's no halfway point where you even out the odds." Liam paused before adding, "You're not going to win here today, Elliot."

"I came here for Olivia, and I'm going to leave here with her." Elliot told Liam.

"No, you're not leaving here today with her Elliot." Liam was starting to really get on Elliot's nerves, but he wasn't going to give up, he had to keep trying. James must have sent some backup out by now.

"Tell me where Olivia is." Elliot's voice began to rise. "Tell me where she is."

"I'm not telling you jack, Elliot. You're not leaving here with her."

"Tell me where she is you bastard! Tell me!"

"No! Shut up!" Liam approached Elliot and punched him in the face. "Shut up!" Elliot's hands were free so he jumped up and lunged at Liam. The two men fell to the ground, Elliot on top of Liam. He began pounding Liam's face with his fists, blood starting to stain his knuckles after only a few punches.

"Where..." he shouted between punches, "is... she...?" He stopped long enough for Liam to answer, holding his fist ready to land another punch on Liam's jaw.

"I'm not telling you." Elliot let his fist fly into Liam's jaw again, receiving a grunt in response. After a few more poundings Elliot stopped and looked down at the bruised and bleeding face beneath him.

"Tell me." He snarled. Liam took the moment of opportunity to take a swing, knocking Elliot off him. He rolled over, now sitting on top of Elliot and resumed what Elliot had paused.

"Now who's in power Elliot!" He shouted, firing perfectly timed punches at the detective's face. Blood soon appeared on his fists, as Elliot's mouth and nose began bleeding. His jaw ached and his head started throbbing as Liam's punches became prolonged but stronger. After several minutes of being beaten to a pulp, Elliot found that Liam simply stopped and got up. He lay on his back on the cold cement floor as blood trickled from his mouth and nose, as his head spun.

"What do you want me to do with him?" He faintly heard Butcher ask Liam.

"Tie him to the chair. Make sure he can't get away while I get his bitch." He felt the vibrations of footsteps on the floor beneath his body, and as he tried to roll over onto his side and spit blood out of his mouth he felt himself being dragged along the ground. As Liam left the area, Butcher lifted Elliot up onto the chair, pulled his hands around the post behind the chair and bound them using Elliot's handcuffs. Elliot's head rolled to the side as he struggled to stay conscious. His head throbbed and pounded like a jackhammer had just drilled through the centre of his skull.

Through blurry eyes Elliot saw Liam return, dragging something behind him on the ground. _Jesus, it's Olivia!_ Elliot realised. He blinked several times to regain full vision and to try and keep blood out of his eyes; blood that was trickling from a wound on his brow.

"Oh Elliot, I have a surprise for you." Liam taunted in a sing-song voice. "I know how much you want to see your bitch, so here she is." Elliot watched as Liam dragged Olivia's body closer, until she was about three or four metres away from where Elliot was tied up. He couldn't get to her, not matter how hard he tried. He couldn't see if she was all right, all he could do was pray that she wasn't dead.

"Olivia..." Elliot moaned. "Jesus, I'm so sorry Olivia." He swallowed the lump in his throat that had formed the moment he realised it was Olivia's body that Liam was dragging behind him.

"Don't start Elliot." Liam snapped.

"Is she..." Elliot gulped and chocked back tears. "Is she alive?"

"Not by much, but that isn't my concern." Elliot scanned her limp body from head to toe for injuries. Her right arm had obviously been bleeding, but the blood had stopped hours ago. Her cargo pants had random slices up and down each leg, and the tears in the fabric were stained lightly with blood. Then Elliot saw the worst wound of all, a slice down the side of Olivia's face. He swallowed a lump in his throat and shook his head in sorrow and regret. He felt terrible for what had happened to Olivia, and that he wasn't able to stop it.

"How can you be so heartless?" Elliot demanded. "How can you simply not care?"

"I don't need to; therefore I don't worry about it." Liam replied. "It's an easy life to live; no regrets."

"You'll regret one thing when this is over, and that is hurting Olivia. I swear I'm gonna kill you if the system doesn't."

"_The system_?" Liam challenged. "You mean the law?"

"Exactly."

"Don't be foolish. The law is not going to stop me, Elliot. I'm not going to get caught, and you and Olivia will never get justice for what is going to happen to you."

Fear rose in Elliot's throat, and came out in his tone. "What do you mean _what is going to happen to you_?" Liam grinned wickedly. "What are you going to do to us?"

"Just you wait Elliot, your time is coming."

"And Olivia? What are you going to do with her?"

"That is not of your concern..." Liam's head snapped up as he heard sirens in the distance. Out in the middle of a disused factory district, there was no way those cops weren't here for him. He looked over at Butcher.

"Are they coming for you?" Butcher asked Liam as panic rose in his voice. They were coming for him too. Elliot grinned and couldn't help but chuckle.

"You thought you had everything in your control." He scoffed, and Liam turned to look at him. "You were _never_ in control Liam, never. The cops have known you were here since the word 'go', and they're coming to get you. They're going to arrest you and they're going to find Olivia and get her help. Then I'm going to be the one who jabs that big needle into your fucking arm." He laughed, finally finding release. A feeling of safety flushed through his body, along with satisfaction and happiness. Olivia wouldn't have to suffer anymore.

"Butcher, back the van up to the loading bay. I'll make sure Elliot's ready for the ride." Elliot's smile faded quickly; along with all the calming feelings he had just felt. _What_?

"What are you talking about?" Elliot asked.

"You're coming with us, Elliot." Liam stole Elliot's grin. "What, did you think this was over? It will never be over, not until you're dead." Liam approached Elliot and kicked him in the stomach while he was tied to the chair. Elliot grunted in pain, unable to fight back. He tried to use a leg in self defence, only to receive a swift kick in the shin to stop him. After a few kicks, Liam began punching Elliot to weaken him – again.

"Stop!" Elliot cried. "Stop!"

"Not gonna happen Elliot." When Liam thought that Elliot would be unable to fight back at all, he walked around the back of the chair and used Elliot's keys to un-cuff him. He pushed Elliot from behind and watched as he fell to the ground.

At that moment, Olivia woke. Her eyes flew open at the sound of movement, and she struggled to sit up and look over to where she heard the noises. Her whole body ached, and was bloody and beaten. Liam had hit her repeatedly in the stomach the day before, and she feared she had broken ribs because it pained her to move even just a little. As she managed to roll over, she saw Elliot lying on the ground and Liam's feet, being kicked over and over in the stomach, sides and back.

"Elliot!" She cried, getting his attention. His head shot up and he looked over at her.

"Olivia!"

"You came!" He grunted as Liam kicked him even harder now he could see that Olivia was awake. "No!" She protested. "Stop it Liam!"

"Olivia! Get up, go! Get out of here!" Elliot groaned as he struggled to take another breath.

"Elliot, I'm not leaving you here!"

"You have to! Cragen is sending backup, just go and wait for them!" Elliot shouted before Liam kicked him in the head. "Aagh!"

"Elliot!" Olivia screamed, not knowing what to do. She could hardly move, so how was she meant to get out and wait for help?

"Ol..." Liam kicked Elliot once more in the head and Olivia noticed his eyes beginning to close. He would pass out any second now.

"Elliot, stay with me!" Olivia shouted. Liam stepped back as Olivia desperately tried to keep Elliot conscious. She fought her own pain to tried and save him, but she could see she was failing. "Elliot!" Come on, stay with me!" Elliot's eyes slowly shut, and his body went limp. He was out.

"There we go." Liam said proudly. He turned to Olivia who lay on her side on the ground, tears rolling down her cheeks as she stared across at the motionless body of her ex-partner.

"Now, what are we going to do with you?" Liam approached Olivia, knelt down and forced her to lie on her back. Kneeling over her, he held his hand around her neck and tightened his grip.

Olivia began gasping for air, unable to breathe. "Liam..." She whispered hoarsely as she felt herself slipping away. She couldn't die, not now, not like this. He wouldn't kill her. Would he? As she gasped a final time, she felt herself slipping... slipping... until there was nothing. As her eyes closed, the last thing she saw was Elliot's limp body lying only metres from her. She reached out her arm at the last moment, but it fell limp to the ground. Liam smiled with satisfaction and got to his feet.

He wandered back over to Elliot's body just as Butcher reappeared. "Cops are close, we gotta go or we're gonna get busted." He told Liam. The sirens had been getting closer the whole time, and now sounded like they were only a few blocks away. They were so stupid to leave the sirens on; it told Liam that they were coming.

"Do you think he had a tracer?" Liam asked Butcher. "Help me search him. Watch, shoes, belt, pockets, rings, ears; search everything. Something has told them where we are."

After a few minutes of searching, Liam had come up with the tracer. He pulled it out of Elliot's ear and held it in his hand. He put it in his top pocket for the time being and grabbed Elliot's cell phone. He typed a message to leave behind for the cops, on Olivia's stomach.

Liam and Butcher grabbed Elliot by his arms and legs and carried him out to the van. They put him in the back, covered him with a sheet and slammed the doors shut. Liam headed around to the drivers side, took the tracer out of his pocket and dropped it on the ground at his feet. Looking down at it for a second, he stamped on it hard and watched it crumble and fall to pieces. The two men got into the van and drove two blocks in the opposite direction to where the sirens were coming from and hid in another factory until it got dark.

_NYPD: SVU squad room, Captain Cragen's Office, 7:02 pm…_

"Captain Cragen," James rang Cragen's cell phone as they were out in the field, close to where Elliot's tracer had led them.

"What is it James?" Cragen answered.

"We have a problem." Cragen's heart skipped a beat.

"What sort of problem?"

"The signal from Elliot's tracer has just been cut off."

"_Cut off_?" Cragen repeated.

"It could mean that his captors have discovered the tracer, that it's been removed by Elliot or..." James paused.

"Or what?" Cragen demanded.

"Or that Elliot is dead."

_7:58 pm..._

Cragen's teams stormed the factory, with Fin, Munch and Cragen following in after them. As the teams searched the factory for either Elliot of Olivia, it was Fin who made the discovery.

"Jesus Christ..." He whispered before turning around and shouting for the Captain. "Hey! I found Olivia! Over here!"

In seconds Munch and Cragen were by his side, as the three of them stood looking at Olivia's bruised, battered and bleeding body lying limp on the ground. Fin fell to his knees and began CPR, trying to revive her as Cragen called for the paramedics to get on the scene.

Munch scanned the scene to discover blood on the ground several metres away from Olivia near a chair resting against a support post. He signalled for the forensic team to take a sample, and to see if it matched Olivia or Elliot. Elliot's body was not there, as confirmed by all the teams. There was no one else in the factory except for Olivia.

"We must have just missed them." Munch scowled. "They must have known we were coming."

"They probably heard the sirens." Cragen cursed. "I told them to turn those damn things off. Now look what happened. We've lost Elliot, and Olivia is close to death."

Fin fell back as the paramedics arrived and sighed. "I couldn't get her Captain. I couldn't bring her back." Cragen knelt beside his detective.

"Come on Fin, let the paramedics work. They're going to get her back." He helped Fin to his feet and the three officers stood in a line as they watched the paramedics try to revive Olivia.

Fin looked down at his hand, to discover that he was holding Elliot's cell phone. He hadn't even realised that he'd picked it up off Olivia's body. He held it up, staring at it blankly. Cragen took it from him, reading the message displayed on the screen.

YOU'LL NEVER FIND HIM.

At close to 8:00 pm, Liam and Butcher drove out of the factory they were hiding in. With no lights on, they escaped the police's net with Elliot still in the back of their van. This was far from over.

**A/N:** It's taken a while for me to get the chapter finished. I got stuck. But now I've finally gotten somewhere, so more reviews please. I was thinking of increasing the rating on this to R because more stuff is to come like what happened in this chapter. Should I just leave the warning on or do readers agree with the rating increase? Let me know.

Just to be sure, I don't mean anything racist by the references to African-American people as black men. I used the term to describe Butcher because it was simple, appropriate and it gave me another description to go by when referring to Butcher's actions during writing. Liam's comment about the man in prison was purely based on rage and his disrespect to Elliot, so I apologise if anyone was offended. It was simply a reference to skin colour – no racism intended.


	5. Chapter 5

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything. Dick Wolf created the Law and Order franchise so all the props go to him.

RATING: MA15+ at least, possibly even R for moderate to high level violence and/or torturous scenes, sexual references and/or themes, adult themes and low to medium level coarse language. I think that's all… just to be safe.

**THE FOLLOWING IS FICTIONAL AND NO ACTUAL PERSON OR EVENT IS DEPICTED**

**The Hard Life**

**CHAPTER FIVE: The Day After **

_New York, Saturday April 29th 2006, Bellevue Hospital, 6:32 am..._

For ten hours Captain Donald Cragen and the only two remaining detectives he had left sat in the hospital waiting room, longing for news about Olivia's condition. John Munch and Odafin Tutuola sat side-by-side in a row of four chairs, with Captain Cragen sitting on the end of the row. The single seat in between Fin and Cragen had remained empty all night, and no member of the general public had chosen to sit there. They all knew that the three men were there together, and even though they had briefly slept during the night, when they woke none of them felt as if they had really gotten any sleep at all.

Cragen had rung Elliot's family to inform them that he was missing, which they all knew because he hadn't come home the night before. Kathy was panicking, fearful for his health and safety while the kids were treated extremely delicately and not told anything until their mother decided it was time. Even though Kathy and Elliot were not together it was still a painful experience for her and the kids. They were all struggling with the news that the father of four might not be coming home again.

A nurse wandered into the waiting room rubbing her hands together nervously. "Captain Donald Cragen?" She announced. The Captain's head shot up suddenly as he heard his name. He got to his feet, with Munch and Fin following his lead.

"Do you have news about my detective?" Cragen tried to remain professional. The woman forced a smile.

"Detective Benson is going to be okay." She declared in an unsure voice; Cragen picked up on her tone. His eyes drifted to her name badge.

"Nurse Delilah," he began. "What exactly do you mean by _okay_? There's something you're not telling us."

"Captain, she has been through an ordeal fewer than one in one hundred people experience. She looks as if she has been to hell and back, but she's alive. You should be thankful for that."

Fin swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and Munch spoke. "What's wrong with her doc, _exactly_?"

Delilah sighed. "Follow me. We should discuss this in a more private place." She turned and headed through a door out of the waiting room. She held it open for Cragen, Munch and Fin then led them down a hall and through another closed door. Up a flight of stairs they passed a sign reading INTENSIVE CARE UNIT and approached a final door with the number 26 on a slide-in room number card. On the other side of the door was a single room with a single bed, hidden by a drawn curtain. The three policemen knew that this was Olivia's room. Munch reached out to pull back the curtain, but Delilah grabbed his wrist to stop him.

"Aren't we allowed to see her?" Cragen asked, taking note of her sudden action.

"You have been permitted to see her, but you should probably know that she's in a very bad state. She has been severely injured."

"Injured how?" Cragen pressed.

"She has three broken ribs, a deep gash on her right arm, bruising, lacerations on her legs and..." Delilah paused. "There's something else."

"What?" Fin asked.

"Whatever happened to her, she received a nasty wound on her face. Down her left cheek there's a gash; it's severe and potentially deadly so we'll need to keep her here for observation for about a week to make sure that there's no infection and to help her heal. The probable cause for the wound would be a simple kitchen knife, possibly a butcher's knife."

Munch scowled, remembering his find at Liam's house. _There was a large knife missing from the knife block on the countertop_.

"Son of a bitch..." Munch muttered.

"Please, this is a hospital." Delilah scolded him. "Show some respect to the patients here."

"Sorry." Munch looked away and Delilah sighed.

"We knew of her external wounds from when we found her, we just didn't know how bad they were." Cragen told the nurse.

"Well, if you remain quiet and in control of your actions, you may see her." Munch reached out again to pull back the curtain, but this time he was not stopped. He pulled it back slowly to reveal Olivia lying peacefully in her bed; bruised and bandaged but asleep.

"Jesus..." Fin whispered.

"It might be nice if he showed up sometime today." Munch commented as he circled Olivia and stood on the other side of the bed. Cragen and Fin didn't even look up; their eyes were fixed on Olivia lying on the bed. She was an innocent caught up in a revenge scheme against Elliot. The detectives knew that now.

"God Olivia, I'm so sorry we couldn't get to you in time." Cragen apologised. A sleeping smile crept across her face, and the three men couldn't even think of what she could possibly be dreaming about at this time to be smiling.

"How long before she'll be awake?" Fin inquired.

"At least another day. We've put her under heavy sedation for the pain, and given her medication to help her heal faster." She paused. "I realise that I can only be told a certain amount of information about incidences like this, and the police believe that I have been told all I need to know to treat Detective Benson; but I feel as if I should know where she came from and what exactly happened to her. It would help me more to know those details."

"Listen to me carefully," Cragen warned. "You've only been told what you need to know for a reason. It's simple; you cannot know anything else, understand? It's not just for your safety, but for the safety of Olivia and the New York Police Department. Do us a favour and don't press the issue any further."

Delilah gulped, feeling a little intimidated. "I can't help her unless I know everything. The location where she was found; it may have been unclean and she could have been infected with something – I wouldn't know. Weapons used against her, the treatment by her captor; all of these thing need to be made clear to me so that I can really help her."

Cragen's eyes narrowed. "You seem to know a lot about Detective Benson's injuries, what have you been told about the situation?"

"I know that she was kidnapped." Delilah began. "I've been told she was held prisoner inside a factory, but I have not been told which one. That doesn't help me make her recovery happen any faster, because I can't treat her for illnesses or infections she may have got from that factory. I have also been told that she was hit repeatedly with a blunt object; probably a foot. She was also attacked with a sharp object; most likely the knife that was used to cause most of her injuries." Delilah noticed the detectives becoming uneasy. "I'm sorry, is this upsetting you?"

"It's just... difficult for us to hear right now." Cragen answered. "You already know enough. For your safety, there are some things you can't be told. Do as I've asked you and _don't ask_." Cragen's eyes flicked to Olivia lying peacefully in the bed.

"Please Captain Cragen, can you tell me anything about the factory she was held in? Anything at all?" Delilah knew she was pushing the limits.

"I can't tell you." Cragen answered quickly.

"Do you _want_ me to help her?" Delilah challenged. The tension was quickly rising.

"How dare you!" Cragen's voice rose too high and Olivia stirred, shifting during her sleep. Cragen panicked at the sight, fearing he might wake Olivia but lowered his voice to a whisper and kept himself in control. "Of course I want to help her, but I can't tell you."

"Just tell me the factory where she was and let me track down further information. If there was anything there that could have infected her I'll find it, and nobody will ever know that you've given out more information. She might have an unknown illness because I can't treat her for what I don't know about."

"For God's sake, I'll get you what you need then." Cragen snapped harshly. "Now stop asking questions." Delilah was silent. The three detectives stared at Olivia for a few seconds before leaving and drawing the curtain around the bed as it was when they had entered the room. They headed back to the precinct to get Nurse Delilah the information she needed to treat Olivia. In the car ride to the precinct, none of them spoke, even though Fin and Munch felt as if they should say something to Cragen about giving out classified information about a case like he was going to do for Delilah.

_NYPD: SVU squad room, Captain Cragen's Office, 7:14 am…_

Cragen phoned through the information to Nurse Delilah at the hospital before hanging up the phone and turning to Munch and Fin who were standing in his office.

He picked up a folded piece of paper from on his desk. "John, I want you to go and tell Derek Hawke's lawyer that his client has been ordered to give a DNA sample by the DA's office." He handed Munch the paper. "Take Derek to Warner and get the sample taken ASAP, and put a rush on the results."

Munch simply nodded, took the folded up piece of paper and left the room. He didn't need to open it to know that it was a warrant for Derek's DNA, he knew Cragen too well.

The Captain looked to Fin who stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, constantly shifting his weight and avoiding eye contact.

"Fin, I want you to find out what vehicles left the factory district last night and when. I don't care how you do it; just find when those bastards got away."

"I'm on it." Fin answered, leaving the room quickly. He went to visit James in telecommunications to try satellite visuals first. That would take a while.

_Pat Benedict's house, 79th Street, 9:11 am..._

The sunlight fought its way through a window painted over with dodgy black paint, and Elliot began to stir. He woke; his head pounding and his body aching. He tried to get up off the bed but ended up falling to the floor. He dragged himself to his feet and sat on the edge of the bed, fighting to stay upright.

Looking around the room, it didn't take long for Elliot to figure out that he was in a basement somewhere. He scanned the room; there wasn't much. Some rugs, old sheets and blankets in a bundle in the corner, scattered newspapers, an old wooden wardrobe and a full-length mirror. Elliot pushed himself up and staggered over to the mirror. He stood looking at a broken reflection of himself. The mirror was cracked across the top and shattered about a quarter of the way down on a diagonal, but most of the mirror was still in tact. Elliot looked into his own eyes, but struggled to see them. His face was puffy and bruised, and one side of his mouth was a violent purple. His whole face ached and he could feel dried blood on his cheek and forehead.

The most painful parts of him were his ribs, stomach, back and sides. He took off his coat slowly and painfully, letting it fall to the floor. He unbuttoned his shirt and let it fall open, gasping at the purple and black bruises on his ribs. He turned slightly to find similar marks on his sides and lower back. He gulped and gently pressed at the bruises, testing them. As he pressed one he felt as if he'd been kicked in the ribs again, the pain was so intense. Groaning, he buttoned up his shirt again and picked up his coat. Although it was spring, Elliot found it extremely cold in the basement. The window was open only slightly, but very little air was getting in. It would have been so much warmer if the sun could get through.

Elliot looked around again, discovering a staircase leading up to a white painted door, with scratches so you could see the original wood underneath it. He panicked, realising that Liam and Butcher would be upstairs. He quickly looked for another way out, but the window was it. Besides it and the door there was nothing. Elliot painfully walked over to the window and grabbed hold of the sill with his fingers. He tried to pull himself up a little bit to see exactly where he was, but it was excruciatingly painful. He managed to see out just a little bit through the slightly open bottom half of the window, and saw that he was in a suburban street. There were ordinary houses with ordinary people doing gardening in their front yards. They had no idea what was going on just across the street; a kidnapped NYPD Detective was being held prisoner in a basement.

Elliot took a chance, hoping that he could get somebody's attention before Liam's. "Help!" He screamed as loud as he could. "Somebody help me!" It hurt him to hold himself up and yell at the same time, so he allowed himself to drop a foot back to the floor.

Elliot heard noises coming from at the top of the stairs. The door burst open and Liam thundered down the stairs, with Butcher not far behind him.

"Shut up!" Liam cried.

"Help me! Somebody!" Elliot continued to call for help, ignoring the pain.

"Shut up unless I tell you to speak!" Liam approached Elliot with a threatening lunge, and he finally stopped calling for help. It was useless, and he now realised that. Just because the window was open it didn't mean that anybody was actually listening for his cries.

"What am I supposed to do?" Elliot asked him. "Just do as you say because you're holding me against my will? I'm not stupid Liam, and I'm not your little lap-dog either. I'm a cop and you must know that when this is over you're going back to prison for a long time. It doesn't matter whether I'm dead or alive; you're not getting out of this."

"Shut up Elliot, you're really pushing your luck now."

"Ooh, I'm so scared." Elliot taunted. He wasn't going to be pushed around anymore by Liam; he was going to end this. "For God's sake be a man. If you're going to do something then just do it already, I'm done waiting."

Liam stepped up to Elliot and pushed him against the wall. He pressed his forearm against Elliot's windpipe, blocking the airway. Elliot tried to fight back, but his injuries restricted his movement and limited his strength. He simply didn't have it in him to take on Liam. Trying to take a breath fight, Elliot swung a fist out at Liam to try and free himself, but Liam grabbed it in his spare hand and kneed Elliot in the ribs.

"Aagh!" Elliot screamed out in agony as Liam's knee connected with the bruises on his stomach. He collapsed to the floor at Liam's feet, and as he looked up he saw the powerful grin plastered on Liam's face. He was proud of this, beating up a respected police officer. Elliot couldn't help but feel small. Liam simply didn't care; he was doing this for the same reason he took those girls five years ago. Power. Power was everything to him, and Elliot took that away when he arrested Liam. Now, Liam was taking it back.

Looking up at the man towering over him, Elliot scowled. _How could he let this worthless piece of trash beat him? He was better than this_.

"If you're going to kill me then just get it over with." Elliot snarled.

"No, death is too good for you. You're going to live and you're going to suffer. _Then_ you're going to die." Liam grinned wickedly. "Nobody will ever find you; dead or alive." Liam signalled to Butcher who was standing a few metres away and he wandered over, pulling a piece of cloth and a small white bottle out from behind his back. Once Elliot caught sight of this he knew it was over. He tried to crawl away, and for a moment Liam let him. He knew that Elliot was not getting away; there was nowhere for him to go. Elliot stopped as he looked back up at the window, desperately thinking that maybe he could get help or that somebody might have heard his earlier cries. He was surprised to look up and see two small eyes peeking through the gaps in the paint. Liam and Butcher hadn't noticed, but Butcher was getting awfully close. Elliot only had a few seconds.

"Hey kid! Get help! Help me!" Liam spun around instantly and saw the two eyes through the paint, as they quickly disappeared.

"Mummy! Somebody's down there!" Elliot heard the child call out across the street. It pained him to hear the reply by the child's mother.

"Get away from there Johnny, that's somebody's house. Come back over here and stay here." Elliot swallowed hard as Butcher leant over him. He allowed himself to relax, simply falling gently to the floor on his stomach. He didn't want to injure himself anymore, and although he didn't want to give up he had no choice. There was no way he was going to win; this day would be his last.

But what was it that Liam had said? _Death is too good for you. You're going to live and you're going to suffer. Then you're going to die. Nobody will ever find you; dead or alive._ That comment made Elliot feel helpless, scared and alone. He was going to die slowly, he just knew it.

Butcher pressed his knee into Elliot's back to hold him down as he poured some of the liquid on to the piece of cloth. He then reached around and held it over Elliot's mouth and nose. It was a stupid move to just do nothing, Elliot knew it; but he had no way of fighting back against Butcher. He chose to give up, give in and fall victim to Liam's vengeful scheme to take back the one thing that mattered to him.

The last thing he pictured in his mind before he slipped under was a photo taken at last year's department Christmas Party with the unit he worked with daily. It had himself, Captain Cragen, Munch, Fin and of course Olivia. Her smile was what stuck with him.

_NYPD: SVU squad room, Captain Cragen's Office, 10:47 am…_

Fin knocked on Captain Cragen's door and allowed himself in without even waiting for an answer. Cragen glared.

"Fin?" He inquired. "Have you got something?"

"If 'something' is the license plate number of a van leaving the factory Olivia was found in at approximately 6:02 pm last night then yes, I have got something Captain." Fin tried to be light-hearted and even positive but Cragen wasn't in the mood.

"Great. Who is the van registered to?"

"A man named Pat Benedict. I did a little research and a background check on Benedict to find he was Liam's prison buddy in Riker's. Through a little more research I also found out that he witnessed a rape in prison: Liam's."

"How sad for Liam." Cragen said unsympathetically.

"Well it seems that Liam and his prison buddy have been in contact through Riker's since Benedict is still there for another five years until he's up for parole."

"What's he in for?" Cragen asked.

"Robbery, numerous assault and battery charges and one charge of rape." Fin read off a sheet of paper in his hand.

"Sounds like a real piece of work."

"Well Liam seems to think he's all right. Somehow he's gotten hold of Benedict's van so I'm thinking we should pay him a visit in Riker's and see if he knows where Liam planned to take his van."

"All right, it's better than the lead we _didn't_ have." Cragen was unsure of the need or importance of this, but he figured that at least it kept Fin busy instead of worrying about Olivia. It was clear the detective was definitely worried.

_Riker's Island, Interrogation Room, 11:24 am..._

Fin had taken Munch with him to Riker's after he'd dealt with Derek Hawke back at the precinct. Now the two detectives sat side-by-side in an interrogation room at a table across from a violent prisoner.

Pat Benedict sat smiling at the detectives opposite him. "Can I help you, _detectives_?" He sneered. Fin glared and Munch was expressionless.

"Shut up and listen." Fin snapped. "You were Liam Olsen's cellmate, correct?" Benedict's smile faded.

"Yeah, so what?"

"You've been in contact with him recently haven't you? Since he got out?"

"Nope, haven't seen him for at least a few weeks."

"Right, since his parole."

"Yeah." Benedict was quick to agree.

"Still, I think you two organised something before he got out. I think you planned something with him."

"Nah man, you got it all wrong." Benedict answered calmly.

"Please, inform us as to _how_ that is exactly?" Munch said.

"You're here about Liam, right?"  
"How on earth did you guess?" Munch cracked sarcastically.

"Well yeah, so I spoke to him before he got out. He was my cellmate remember?"

"You two were buddies then?" Fin asked.

"Yeah. I tried to stop him from being raped; I was meant to protect him."

"What do you mean _meant to protect him_?" Munch asked. "Did somebody pay you to keep him safe?"

"Kinda." Benedict looked away. "Look, I can't say much because I'll lose what's left of the money if I talk. And he'll kill me."

"What a loss." Munch mumbled.

"And how would your _sponsor_ know?" Fin sneered.

"He'll know." Benedict was beginning to look weak to the detectives, and he was lowering his tough-guy act.

"Tell us, what's his name? He won't find out, but we gotta find Liam. Any connections or leads have to be checked out."

"I can't tell you. You don't get it." Benedict was clearly scared.

"Well tell us this then, how is it that Liam was seen last night driving a van registered to you?" Fin changed the subject to the real reason they were there.

"I told him where the keys were and allowed him to use my van to get to and from work."

"_Work_?" Munch queried. "Liam doesn't have a job, stop lying to us."

"What are you talking about?" Benedict asked.

"Liam kidnapped a NYPD Detective using your van, and you're just lying to us." Fin snapped. "Tell us if he told you anything before he got out."

"Why should I tell you?" Benedict demanded.

"Because we're trying to find our friend and if you know what's good for you then you'll tell us." Munch snapped.

"Geez, calm down." Benedict answered calmly. "He just told me he had some unfinished business and wanted to know if he could use my place to crash at. At least until I get out, but that's gonna be a few years yet; my parole isn't for another five years."

"Liam's at your house?" Fin's voice rose as he made the realisation that they had made a breakthrough in Elliot's case.

"As far as I know."

"Did you give him the keys?"

"They were with my mother. I told him to pay her a visit and tell her that I sent him. She must have given them to him because you said he was driving my van. He must have found the car keys in the house."

"Can you write down where you mother lives for us, and your address." Fin asked, trying to be nice.

"You're cops, can't you find out?" Fin and Munch glared until Benedict gave in and scribbled down the addresses on a piece of paper. "There," he slid it across the table. "Are you satisfied now?"

"Very." Munch got up, followed by Fin. The two detectives left the room, and Benedict was taken back to his cell.

_NYPD: SVU squad room, Captain Cragen's Office, 12:48 pm…_

Fin and Munch burst through Cragen's door to find him sitting alone at his desk. He looked up at them.

"What have you got?" He asked.

"An address for where Liam might be." Fin replied. Cragen's eyes lit up. Fin approached and handed him the piece of paper Benedict had scribbled the addresses down on back at Riker's.

"Are you sure this is legit?" Cragen inquired.

"We've checked out the top address, and it's exactly correct. Pat Benedict's mother lives there, and we paid her a visit. She said she gave a man Benedict's house keys. It _had_ to be Liam."

"What description could she give you?"

"It doesn't matter; we don't have one of Liam." Fin quickly answered.

"Think again." Cragen picked up a photo off his desk and faced it to them. Fin looked at Munch beside him.

"That's the guy she described, isn't it John?"

"Yeah."

"Where'd you get that Captain?"

"It's a photo taken just before Liam' release from Riker's." Cragen said. "Taken three weeks ago to the day." He grinned, putting the photo back down on his desk. "Do you think we've got the bastard?"

"My gut tells me he's at Benedict's house." Munch replied.

"Same here."

"All right then. I'll call the teams; you two get ready to go out in the field. Meet in the squad room for a briefing in ten minutes."

"Gotcha Captain." Fin and Munch left Cragen's office, and as he leant back on his desk Cragen couldn't help but sigh in relief. This was a strong lead, and it was the first break they'd had in a long time.

_NYPD: SVU squad room, 1:00 pm..._

"Listen up everybody!" Cragen declared. "With regards to kidnapped Detective Elliot Stabler we have been tipped-off to a location on 79th Street. Be aware that there _will_ be civilians in the street, and when we storm the house we need to ensure the safety of _everyone _in the vicinity." He paused. "It's the middle of the afternoon guys, there will be kids out."

Over two-dozen faces stared back at him, all crowded into the squad room. Officers, storm teams and Detectives stood around in several uneven rows, all with one thing on their minds: the Detective held prisoner by a psycho in a suburban house.

"We have to move swiftly and be well co-ordinated. There isn't room for mistakes today ladies and gentlemen, we need to get in there and find my Detective. You all know your positions, let's move."

_Pat Benedict's house, 79th Street, 1:20 pm..._

With a screech of tyres several cars, vans and other police vehicles pulled up outside the house. Officers and storm teams approached the house from all directions. Some burst through the front door; others jumped fences and headed in the back way. Munch, Fin and Cragen followed the first team in the front door and looked around the house.

They found themselves in the entry and hallway, with wooden floorboards and old dusty rugs. Liam hadn't been here for long, he hadn't even cleaned the place up.

"In here!" Came the shout of one of the officers. Cragen, Fin and Munch hurried into the next room where the voice was coming from to find Liam sitting calmly on the couch.

"You son of a bitch, _get up_!" Cragen snarled at the thin, scrawny man relaxing on the couch as if nothing was wrong.

"Is there a problem officer?" Liam asked.

Cragen reached down and dragged Liam to his feet by the collar of his shirt. He drew Liam in close to his face and stared menacingly into his eyes.

"Where is Elliot Stabler?" He demanded.

"Who?"

"_Elliot Stabler_!" Cragen shouted. "Where is he!" The Captain was losing it.

"I'm sorry; I don't know who you're talking about." Liam grinned cunningly.

"What have you done to him?" Cragen released Liam, realising that the situation was much worse than he had imagined. "What have you done to him Liam?" He repeated.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Liam continued the fake act, but he would soon give it all up; he was just testing the police first. It was too entertaining for him to give in yet.

"Liam I sweat to God if you don't tell me where Elliot is I _will_ kill you."

"No you won't." Liam snorted. "You won't _kill me_, you couldn't."

"_Couldn't_?" Cragen cried. "You want me to show you how I _couldn't_?"

"Captain..." Munch tried to calm him down, but Cragen pushed him away.

"Don't try to stop me John." Cragen warned.

"Hey, just stop for a second!" Munch cried. Cragen glared at him. "If you don't stop now you're going to end up doing something you'll regret. Just cool it."

Cragen sighed, forcing himself to understand his Detective and what he was saying. He took a deep breath and turned to Liam again.

"Where is my Detective?" He demanded again. Liam simply laughed.

"Oh geez, you really are fun to watch when you _suffer_." He mocked. "When you're tormented by the loss of two of your Detectives you really are hilarious to watch fall apart."

"Shut up." Cragen snapped. "Tell me what you've done to him."

"Oh, you'll find him soon enough." Liam answered. "But it will be too late."

"What's that, a riddle?" Fin snorted at the stupidity of the comment.

"No, think about it." Liam answered. "Even if you find him, it will be too late... for him. He really doesn't have much time. You'll be digging for hours before you find him..." Liam paused and covered his mouth with his fingers tauntingly. "... Oops, did I say that?"

"_Digging_?" Cragen repeated. "You bastard, what have you done?"

"Oh, don't worry Captain Cragen; it will be okay in the end. Elliot's going to a better place where he doesn't have to be around that bitch Olivia." Cragen lashed out and punched Liam hard in the jaw. He staggered, straightening himself back up and wiping some blood away from the corner of his mouth. It wasn't the only injury he had visible, and Cragen realised that now.

"Elliot fought back, didn't he?"

Liam simply glared.

"You son of a bitch, I swear I'm going to be there when they ram that needle into your arm. You're going to get the death penalty for this; I don't care how far I have to go to make sure of it."

"This isn't a crime that warrants the death penalty Captain Cragen; you should know that." Liam teased.

"I also know that I have friends in high places who can give you _exactly_ what you deserve."

"Sure. But first, _you have to find the proof_." Liam whispered. Cragen knew he had very little time. He pushed hard against Liam's chest with one hand and watched him fall back onto the couch.

"You, stay with him. If he tries to get out, shoot his legs." Cragen ordered harshly to the officer who had called him into the room. "Fin, you and John come with me. We're going to do some digging.

_1:35 pm..._

Cragen had organised shovels and spades for all the officers not watching Liam. One group was assigned to the backyard and one to the front. There was a smaller team to check downstairs that the basement floor wasn't dirt underneath that had recently been moved.

"Backyard team!" Cragen called loudly. Shouts came in response. "Check for recently moved earth _before _you start digging. Anything that can speed up finding Elliot should be done. Go!" The team jogged around the back, leaving one group in the front yard. "Guys, you're going to do the same thing. Start digging."

Cragen turned to Munch and Fin. "Are we each taking one of the locations to start digging?" Munch asked.

"Exactly. What do you want John?"

"Basement works for me. I'll make sure if they find a way to get under the wood that we do." Cragen nodded and sent him inside.

"I'll stay here. The backyard is bigger, you should supervise there Captain." Fin suggested.

"Good idea. Make sure the job is done properly, I know that you understand how important that is."

"I sure do. You can count that if Elliot is down there _we will _find him." Cragen smiled weakly before heading around the back. He heard Fin's voice encouraging the diggers. "Come on guys, we've got to find him." Fin dug his shovel into the dirt and joined the diggers. With no loose earth it was simply a matter of digging and hoping they were in the right place.

In the backyard, Cragen joined the 10 or so officers digging around trees and the garage. As they dug, Cragen prayed that Elliot was still alive. All he could do was pray.

**A/N: I know, possibly a bad place to end this but there's much more for the next chapter I just figured that I'd better stop here. And just so my readers know, the end is near! We're approaching the final chapter and the outcome of Olivia's health and Elliot's life. With many reviews I may update faster... hint, hint... I'll do my best, I love writing this. I hope you love reading it just as much. **


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I'm surprised that nobody has asked me yet about why Elliot's family is not more thoroughly included in this story and why they haven't been in contact with Cragen relating to news about the situation. I'll explain now anyway that I thought it would be best not to try and write them in because I don't know the characters well enough to try writing them. They do know he's missing since he hasn't been home in a day or so, and Captain Cragen informed them while he was waiting at the hospital. (I wrote that in after realising I hadn't even mentioned the family once. Oops :P) **

**Also, I haven't forgotten about rape victim Maria Ling – I will get back to her eventually. Elliot's storyline is still developing first. **

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything. Dick Wolf created the Law and Order franchise so all the props go to him.

RATING: MA15+ at least, possibly even R for moderate to high level violence and/or torturous scenes, sexual references and/or themes, adult themes and low to medium level coarse language. I think that's all… just to be safe.

**THE FOLLOWING IS FICTIONAL AND NO ACTUAL PERSON OR EVENT IS DEPICTED**

**The Hard Life**

**CHAPTER SIX: Lives in the Balance **

_New York, Saturday April 29th 2006, Pat Benedict's House, 79th Street, 3:52 pm..._

It had been over two hours that the officers had been digging but they still had no luck in finding Elliot. Two dozen men couldn't dig fast enough to save one of their own, and as much as Cragen tried to couldn't make them go any faster.

"John, have you got anything?" Cragen called through the basement window facing the street.

"Not yet! There is a lot of dirt under here to dig into, and it's hasn't given us anything yet!" Munch called back up.

"Keep trying!" Cragen wandered around to Fin who was still digging like mad around the paths out the front of the house. Neighbours began gathering around to see what was going on. "Fin, how's it going?" Cragen asked.

Fin stopped for a breather. "Not too good." He plunged the shovel into the ground and leant on it with one arm. "We've had no luck Captain, we've dug a metre into the ground and there's nothing."

"Shit," Cragen scowled. "He must be deeper then. Keep digging Fin, you can't give up."

"I had no intention of that ever happening." Fin continued digging as Cragen headed back inside the house to have another chat with Liam.

Liam looked up as Cragen appeared in the doorway. "Any luck yet?" He taunted.

"Shut up you worthless piece of trash." Cragen snapped. "You kidnapped one of my Detectives, lured another and ended up burying him in the ground at your prison buddy's house. Why all of this? Why!"

"So you know about Pat then?" Liam swayed from Cragen's question.

"How do you think we found you?"

"I did wonder..."

"Tell me Liam, why did you do it? Why did you go to such lengths to get to Elliot?" Liam shrugged. "And why did you attack Detective Benson?"

"Ah, Olivia." Liam mused. Cragen glared. "It was never about her, but she had to pay as well. Elliot was who I really wanted."

"Why?"

"I'm not telling you. Ask Elliot, if you ever find him. _Alive_."

"Where is he Liam?"

"I told you."

"No, you didn't. You told us _to_ dig, but you didn't tell us _where_." Cragen was getting angry. "Liam, is he here?"

"I'm not telling you." Liam grinned and Cragen grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him to his feet.

"Bastard!"

"They're just words, Captain Cragen." Liam looked him straight in the eyes. "Shouldn't you be out there _digging_?"

"Tell me where to dig."

"No."

"Tell me." Cragen's voice rose to almost a scream.

"No." Liam refused to give in. He wanted Elliot to suffer before he died; just like he'd promised. Cragen was losing his patience and his temper fast. He just wanted his Detective back.

"Liam, for God's sake give it up. Just tell me whether he's in the front yard, back yard or in the basement. Just give me that."

Liam sighed. "Well, Elliot's as good as dead anyway. I've got what I want, so what does it matter anymore?" Liam was emotionless, and paused as Cragen's eyes pleaded with him. "He's in the backyard."

Cragen's eyes lit up. _Can I believe him_? He asked himself. He had to trust that what Liam was saying was correct. But the back yard was huge. It would take more than the ten or so men out there to dig through it all.

"Are you lying to me Liam?" Cragen demanded before shouting orders.

"No. I swear; you want to find him and I don't give a shit. Go ahead, go dig until you find him. _If _you find him." Cragen turned and left the room, leaving Liam in the company of the supervising officers again.

"Fin! Munch! Get around here!" Cragen shouted at the top of his lungs. Munch came running out of the house, followed by Fin from around the side.

"What is it?" Munch asked. "Did you find Elliot?"

"Maybe. Liam swears that he's in the backyard."

"And you believe that bastard?" Fin cried.

"We don't have a choice. The back yard is the biggest field. We've got to get through it before nightfall, and there's over half of it left to dig in."

"You want us to join the party out here?" Munch asked.

"Yes."

"All right, if you think he's here then we'll start digging." Fin agreed.

"All right. We can't waste anymore time. Elliot's life depends on it; Liam said that he hasn't got long."

_4:15 pm..._

Elliot woke slowly, his eyes flittering open. He coughed a few times from the thin air. The after-fumes of the chloroform used to knock him out and the overpowering smell of dirt didn't help either. He tried to sit up, only to discover that he couldn't move. He could barely get his hands up over his stomach from beside his body, and it didn't take him longer than three seconds to realise why.

He was in a box. He was lying down. He was tied up. He was buried. Alive.

A panicked sob rose in his throat, a claustrophobic reaction to his current situation. He was alone, buried somewhere in possible metres of dirt in a wooden box. He could lightly tap the sides of the box with his fingers, but he barely heard it himself. There was no way out. There was no one who knew he was here. There was nothing he could do. He was helpless, alone and terrified.

It was only then that he felt the painful injuries he had sustained during his ordeal as everything began to hurt. He screamed in agony; a cry that was muffled by the wooden box, dirt and grass for two metres above him.

But Fin heard.

"Captain!" He shouted. "Over here!" Fin dropped to his knees on the grass near a spot that hadn't been unearthed yet.

"What is it?" Cragen came running over, followed by Munch who grabbed his shovel and ran over.

"I though I just heard something."

"Heard what?" Munch asked. "How could you have heard something beneath all that dirt?

"I just did!" Fin snapped. "It was like a... a cry. Maybe a shout?"

"_Maybe_?" Cragen repeated. "Fin, we need _positives_ right now. Are you sure you heard something right there?"

"Yes."

"All right then, start digging there." Fin and Munch desperately began digging, and within a few minutes they were already half a metre down.

"How far do you think we should dig?" Fin asked.

"How far do you think Liam had _time_ to dig?"

"Not too far, if we keep going then hopefully we'll find something."

"Hopefully." Cragen said sadly. He was beginning to lose hope. At least this last minor discovery by Fin gave him some hope that Elliot was still alive. _Some_ hope.

_4:30 pm..._

After another ten minutes of digging Fin and Munch were getting nowhere. They had dug close to two metres down into the ground and had come up with nothing.

"Come on, where the fuck is he?" Fin cried angrily. He stabbed the ground hard with his shovel. "Elliot!" He screamed loudly, directing his anger at the ground beneath him as he stood in a hole over a metre wide.

Elliot thought he heard something. Was it his name? He coughed a few times before trying to shout back. "Hello?"

"Hey, did you hear that?" Fin dropped to his knees in the dirt and pressed his ear to the ground. "Elliot?"

"Help..." Elliot moaned, coughing again. The thin air was starting to get to him, but even through the box and the remaining dirt Fin still heard him.

"He's here!" Fin shouted. "Captain, he's down there!" Cragen grabbed a shovel and began widening the pit Fin was standing in. Munch helped him as Fin continued to dig down, throwing shovel-loads of dirt over his shoulder and past the other diggers.

"Guys, help us widen this hole!" Cragen ordered as all the officers hurried over and began digging around the same area. "And somebody call 911 and get an ambulance!" An officer pulled out his cell phone and dialled 911, reaching an operator and requesting an ambulance.

For another five minutes or so Fin, Munch, Cragen and half a dozen officers widened the hole and dug deeper. They had to be over two metres down but they still hadn't found Elliot. Suddenly, Fin's shovel struck something solid. Everybody froze at the sound of the metal hitting the wood, and Elliot's scream could be heard loud and clear.

"It's okay Elliot, we're coming!" Fin got on his hands and knees and began clawing at the dirt trying to reach his friend. He scraped away layers of dirt, pushing it all to the sides as onlooking officers gaped in anticipation. Fin finally saw the pale coloured wood and brushed away the last layer of dirt to reveal the box.

Elliot could feel pressure on the box. He heard a voice calling to him, but in his state of mind he couldn't make out much of anything except for himself repeatedly calling for help without even realising he was doing it. "Please!" He cried. "Help me!"

"Elliot, I'm coming buddy! Hang on!" Fin dusted off the whole box until the top was full uncovered. "Can I get a hand with this thing?"

"Jesus..." Munch moaned when he saw the box from above. It was perfectly sized for Elliot, his same height and width; he must fit in it perfectly. The thought that it was built specifically for Elliot sickened him.

Out of nowhere somebody handed Fin a crowbar and he began prying open the lid of the box. It was nailed shut, so he had to use excessive force. In the end he stood up and pressed against the crowbar with one foot, eventually hearing a loud pop as the nails gave.

Elliot moaned from inside and Fin stepped to the side to pull the lid off. The hole was now about three metres wide, giving him room to step off the box.

Anxious eyes stared down from at the sides of the hole as Cragen, Munch and all the other officers watched in horror. Fin lifted off the lid and pushed it to the side, revealing Elliot lying helpless and exposed in the box.

"Jesus, Elliot!" Cragen cried. He turned and shouted over his shoulder, "Get the medics in here _now_!" Elliot looked up at all the faces and inhaled deeply; his breathing irregular. Fin signalled to a couple of other guys who helped him to lift up the box. With half a dozen officers they managed to pick up the heavy wooden box and place it on the grass, out of the hole. Fin, Munch and Cragen stared at the box for a few seconds.

Elliot was dazed; his head rolling round as he murmured incoherently. Fin began untying Elliot's wrists that were bound together by a single rope reaching around his back so he couldn't move them; while Cragen and Munch worked on the ropes binding his ankles.

The medics soon arrived and after breaking the sides of the box out they were able to access Elliot to lift him onto the stretcher. After moans, groans and cries of pain Elliot was out of the box and on the stretcher. His friends and workmates could really see the damage done to him now that he was free.

There were cuts, bruises, blood stains, and obvious broken leg as well as possible internal injuries. Cragen placed a hand on Elliot's shoulder as the stretcher was raised to be wheeled away.

"Elliot, it's okay now we've got you." He said soothingly.

"Ol..." Elliot stammered. "Ol..."

"Olivia?" Cragen finished.

"Yeah..." Eliot moaned before clenching his eyes tightly shut in pain as the stretcher ran over a bump. Cragen walked hurriedly by his side.

"She's okay Elliot, we found her. She's in the hospital. She's right where you're going; you'll see her soon."

Cragen's heart broke at the sight of a smile creeping onto Elliot's face. _God, Elliot I'm so sorry for what happened to you. I should have been more prepared when I sent you after Olivia._

The paramedics pushed the stretched into the back of ambulance and Cragen sent Fin and Munch with him to the hospital.

"Make _damn sure_ he's safe." He directed them before rushing inside to Liam in the living room. The officers pacing around the room froze as they heard footsteps entering the house. They had seen through the window the discovery that had been made. Cragen stopped inside the doorway and glared menacingly at Liam.

"So you found him then?" Liam said without feeling, without care.

"Yes, we found him. And you're going to spend a lifetime paying for what you did to him." Cragen threatened, taking him by the wrist and spinning him around. Taking some handcuffs off one of the officers Cragen proceeded to arrest Liam. "Liam Olsen, you are under arrest for the kidnapping, assault and attempted murder of New York Police Department Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler. You have the right to remain silent and you _damn well better_. You have the right to an attorney and you're gonna need a damn good one to get yourself out of this. If you can't afford one then you're screwed."

Cragen forcefully marched Liam out of the house and out to the squad vehicles where he was driven back to the precinct to be put in holding over-night.

"Do me a favour, don't show him any mercy." Cragen told the officers escorting Liam to the precinct. Cragen got into his car and drove to the hospital to see Elliot, Fin, Munch and Olivia.

_Bellevue Hospital, 5:22 pm..._

Elliot had been rushed into surgery after it was discovered that he had internal abdominal bleeding. Munch and Fin sat in the waiting room as they had done while awaiting results on Olivia earlier that morning. It seemed such a harrowing place to be more than once a day, especially for somebody you care about so much.

When Cragen arrived, at the hospital he was informed that Elliot would be in surgery for two hours and then would be sedated for the pain. He wouldn't be conscious until the morning. The same thing was said for Olivia, so Fin, Munch and Captain Cragen had no choice but to leave. Fin and Munch forced themselves to go home, under the Captain's orders.

He called Kathy.

_Brrp. Brrp. Brrp. _

"Hello?" Kathy answered the home phone.

"Kathy? It's Don." Cragen began slowly.

"Oh my God, have you found him?" She cried.

"Yes, we found him a little over half an hour ago. He's..." Cragen was interrupted.

"Is he okay?" She asked hysterically.

"He's in rough shape Kathy, he's in surgery at the moment." Cragen tried to be gentle with the details he gave her.

"_Surgery_?" She gasped. "What for?"

"Internal bleeding in his abdomen."

"God, what happened to him?" She began sobbing softly, getting louder sith ever choked sob Cragen heard through the phone.

"I promise you Kathy, the son of a bitch who did this to him _is_ going to pay. He's going to pay with his life and I'm going to make sure of it."

"Thank you, Don." Kathy genuinely sounded appreciative, and it surprised Cragen a little because he expected her to be angry and full of hatred. She was peaceful and surprisingly calm. A few sobs was all she gave out, and Cragen soon figured out why. She was simply too distraught to show proper emotions. She must have been falling to pieces.

"It's all right Kathy. You just take it easy and I'll be in touch."

"When can I see him?"

Cragen sighed. "I'll call you when he's out of surgery, but he'll be out until the morning. You might like to sit with him, maybe until he wakes up."

"Yes, thank you again Don, I feel so helpless. There's nothing I can do."

"I'm afraid you're right there Kathy, you just have to wait this out. Don't worry though, he'll be okay. He's a tough soldier, he won't fall this easily."

"No I guess not. Thank you for calling Don. Goodbye."

"Goodbye Kathy."

_7:30 pm..._

Cragen sat with Olivia for over an hour on the off-chance that she might wake up, but instead found himself reading an old book someone had left behind in the cupboard. At about 6:40 he left her ICU room and headed back to the waiting room in case Elliot's surgery finished early.

"Excuse me; I was wondering if a patient named Elliot Stabler is out of surgery yet?" Cragen asked a nurse at the desk.

"Yes, he's just come out but he won't be awake until the morning. You should go home." The nurse told him. He knew visiting hours were over anyway but he had pulled some favours to allow him to stay back and also Kathy Stabler for when Elliot was out of surgery.

"Thank you, I just have to make a call." Cragen backed away and stepped out of the room down an empty hallway. He pulled out his cell phone and dialled that all-too-familiar number.

"Hello?" Kathy answered, sounding extremely distraught.

"Kathy, it's Don again."

"How's Elliot?" She asked immediately. "Is he out of surgery? Is he okay?"

"Kathy, he's out of surgery but he's asleep right now. The doctor said he'd be out until the morning. Do you want to come and sit by his side for the night?"

"God, yes. I'll be there soon." Kathy smiled, even though she knew Cragen couldn't see, and then hung up. "Don, thank you again."

"You don't need to thank me."

"Yes, I do. I'm just so glad you found him."

"I'll see you soon Kathy."

"See you Don."

_8:07 pm..._

Kathy arrived at the hospital half an hour after talking to Captain Cragen, and found him in the waiting room. He had already been to Elliot's room in ICU, and had returned so that when Kathy arrived he could take her to see Elliot.

"Please, is he all right?" Kathy begged when she rushed into the waiting room.

"Kathy, he looks peaceful. But remember, he is under the effects of drugs. He won't be able to answer you."

"I know, but I just want to sit with him. I feel so terrible."

"Come on, I'll show you his room."

_Intensive Care Unit, 8:13 pm..._

Cragen held open the door marked 209 and allowed Kathy to make her own way inside. He stepped in after her and closed the door, watching as Kathy approached Elliot's bed.

He lay exactly as Cragen had described; peaceful and drugged. He had bags under his eyes, which could have been confused with bruises and his head was slightly tilted to the left. He was breathing weakly, but steadily and looked more like he was dead than alive. He was pale and looked as if he had aged 10 years in the days since Olivia's kidnapping and his own.

"Would you like me to leave you alone with him?" Cragen offered.

"Yes, just for a little while. Thank you." Kathy nodded to him as he left, heading to room 208 to see Olivia. He had organised close rooms so the two Detectives were closer together. Just across the hall Olivia lay peacefully as well, stirring every now and then as the drugs began to wear off. She'd be awake in a few hours, about 5 or 6 am the doctors guessed. That gave Cragen close to ten hours to try and get some sleep.

He could now, since both of his Detectives were safe. He sat down in a chair beside Olivia's bed and leant against the wall. After sitting for close to an hour, he finally dozed off and remained by Olivia's side until morning.

**A/N: Again, a little short to end here but oh well. Next chapter is a new day, which is how I planned to write this in the beginning – one chapter was equal to one day. But then there became too much information, so there became too much writing. Well enough of me blabbing, I've got to go and continue writing for chapter 7. Reviews are most welcome for this chapter. :P**


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: my apologies that it has taken so long to update this; RL hasn't been too kind as of late. However, I've finally found some time to write a whole chapter so here it is.**

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything. Dick Wolf created the Law and Order franchise so all the props go to him.

RATING: MA15+ at least, possibly even R for moderate to high level violence and/or torturous scenes, sexual references and/or themes, adult themes and low to medium level coarse language. I think that's all… just to be safe.

**THE FOLLOWING IS FICTIONAL AND NO ACTUAL PERSON OR EVENT IS DEPICTED**

**The Hard Life**

**CHAPTER SEVEN: Protection **

_New York, Sunday April 30th 2006, Bellevue Hospital, 6:49 am..._

Cragen had got the first good night's sleep in three or four days, since Olivia's kidnapping. Although he slept in a lousy hospital chair, it gave him just the right amount of comfort to allow him to sleep contently until Olivia woke him.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to wake you." She apologised in a soft, weak voice.

"Morning Olivia." He smiled at the sight of her sitting up in bed, strong. "You _don't_ need to apologise to me. If anything, I need to apologise to you."

"What for?"

"For not protecting you. For not finding you soon enough. For letting Liam get you instead of putting you under protection when he first contacted you."

"Do you really think I would have accepted protection?" Olivia pointed out.

"No, but I would have made you." Cragen smiled, lightening-up the situation. "So how do you feel?"

"Like I was beaten, kicked, punched and strangled."

A lump had formed at the back of Cragen's throat and now that he was seeing Olivia alive, awake and safe he felt a rush of relief that it was all over. He forced another smile; this one uncomfortable, and Olivia smiled back.

"I'm so sorry."

"Don't be."

"How are you holding up then?"

"Seriously?" She filled in for him. "I feel bad. I feel _really_ bad. I'm sore, broken, battered and surprisingly itchy from something." She looked down at her foot which was sticking out of the edge of the sheet, and hanging slightly off the bed.

"The nurse treating you tried everything to make sure you got better sooner." Cragen tried not to feel bad but he simply couldn't help it. Honestly; he felt terrible.

"That was nice of her."

"I was so worried about you Liv, I really was."

_Liv. He used the nickname Elliot uses_. Olivia thought to herself. _He's been paying attention to that... and he cares about me so much to use a personal nickname. I can't imagine how bad he must feel right now_.

"I know you were Captain, but I'm okay now. Really."

"Really?"

"Yes. I'm hurt, yeah, but that's to be expected after being kidnapped by a psycho." Cragen smiled feebly. "Remember Captain, we deal with stuff much worse than this every day. We _see_ stuff much worse than this every day, and we get through it. There's no one to tell me that I can't get through it even if it's been done to me."  
"You're strong Olivia, I know you are. That's why I know that you're going to pull through. I just... I can't help but worry. I'm your superior and I have to look out for your safety."

"You couldn't have changed what happened." Olivia assured him. "It happened outside of work, and there was nothing you could do. Don't beat yourself up over this."

"I still feel like I could have done something."

"Well you couldn't, so drop it now, okay?" Cragen opened his mouth to protest but Olivia spoke again. "Tell me, did you at least get the bastard?"

"Yes, we got him." Cragen answered triumphantly. "We had to use him to get information about where to find Elliot –". Cragen was interrupted by Olivia as she jumped in.

"Jesus, Elliot! God, is he all right?"

"Olivia, he's in the room across the hall." Cragen told her.

"I have to see him. I have to..."

"I don't think that's a good idea." Cragen tried to talk her out of it before placing a hand on her wrist to stop her as she tried to get out of bed.

"Let go of me, I need to see him. I need to know that he's all right."

"He's fine, he's sleeping." Cragen assured her.

"How do you know?" Se accused. "I've been awake for half an hour and I watched you sleeping there. You couldn't possibly know what Elliot is doing right now."

Cragen sighed. "Olivia, please. You're not in good enough condition to be running about the halls of a hospital."

"You said he's just across the hall!" Olivia protested.

"Please, just stay here. I don't want you to be hurt any more than you already are."

"Captain, I'm fine." Olivia lied, knowing that she wasn't. She threw back the covers and tried to get out of bed, only to be unable to support herself and fall to the floor. Cragen was there in an instant, grabbing her and pulling her back up.

"Nurse! Somebody!" he shouted loudly, hearing his voice echo through the empty halls.

"Please, don't call for help I'm fine." Olivia scolded, wincing as Cragen helped her back into bed. She sighed. "Fine, I'll stay here. But I have to see Elliot soon. Last time I saw him he was being beaten to death by Liam."

"Liam didn't want him dead at the factory, Olivia." Cragen began explaining. "He took Elliot to a house in the suburbs and buried him."

"_Buried_ _him_?" Olivia squealed. She felt like she was about to faint.

"We found him in time, but he's still hurt from injuries he sustained hours before, most likely at that factory."

"Please, Don, don't tell me any more." Olivia began to cry. "God, poor Elliot." She buried her face in her hands and sobbed gently.

"I'm sorry Olivia." Cragen apologised. "He's all right now, he's just resting. You can see him, soon."

"How soon?" Olivia looked up.

"How about I go and find out?" Cragen offered.

"That would be good. Thank you." She smiled slightly and wiped away tears off her red face. The whole time Cragen had tried so hard to keep his eyes off the patch on her cheek. He knew what it covered.

_7:08 am..._

Across the hall in Elliot's room, Kathy still sat by his side at the edge of the bed. She held his hand in hers and sat there crying. She'd obviously been doing that all night because as she turned to look at Cragen her eyes were red raw from being rubbed. He hadn't heard a single noise during the night coming from this room.

"Kathy?" he whispered.

"Oh, Don," Kathy started, "I'm so terrified that he won't wake up."

"He will Kathy, he will. Just wait."

"The doctors came in earlier to check on him and told me he was doing fine."

"Well there you go, there's proof. He'll be okay." Kathy turned back to look at Elliot. "Kathy, Olivia wants to know when she can see Elliot. I told her I'd check and I thought that I should run it by you too."

"It's not up to me anymore." She answered.

"Technically you're still his wife." Cragen corrected her.

"Yes, well, that might be why I still care." Cragen's heart broke. Could he really bring Olivia into the same room with Elliot's grieving wife? He knew there was something between the two Detectives, there had been for a while now. It had become more apparent of late, and Cragen was afraid to let the three of them be in the same room as each other.

"Uhh..." A moan escaped Elliot's lips as he woke slowly. Kathy squeezed his hand gently.

"Elliot? Elliot, honey it's Kathy."

"Kath..." he breathed.

"Yeah honey, I'm here." Cragen approached the other side of the bed, where Elliot appeared to be looking. As he got closer, Elliot lifted his head and followed Cragen's movements.

"Capt..." he whispered, blinking with exhaustion.

"Hi Elliot. How you holding up?"

"Where's Ol..." He couldn't get a whole sentence out.

"She's across the hall." Cragen answered.

"She hurt?" Elliot managed to get out two whole words, but that was all. It was exhausting for him.

"A little bit. Elliot, how do you feel?" Cragen asked.

"Pain... hurt..." Elliot stammered. "Hate... anger... f-fear." His last word hit Captain Cragen like a solid punch to the gut. Elliot was afraid; afraid of Liam.

Elliot had never been afraid of anything as long as Cragen had known him. That minor run-in with a possible AIDS infection had Elliot a little scared, but it was nothing compared to this. Elliot was terrified of a human being; a man capable of killing him if he really wanted to. Clearly he did, because he was willing to go to such extreme lengths to get a hold of Elliot in the first place. Cragen was surprised that such a strong-willed, tough, well-built and intimidating man such as Elliot could be afraid of a weak little worm like Liam. Still, Cragen knew that this was really getting to Elliot and in turn it was getting to him.

"Elliot, I'm so sorry about what happened to you." He swallowed a lump in his throat. "You might want to know that we caught Liam and that I swear to you he'll get the death penalty for what he did to you and Olivia."

"No..." Elliot breathed.

"No?"

"He needs..." Elliot paused, breathing irregularly, "... to be punished. Life sentence. No parole. Solitary confinement. He needs ... to know... what it's like... to be alone... with no way out."

"I'll see that it's done Elliot, you have my word. Casey will get him exactly the punishment he deserves."

A smile crept onto Elliot's face. "Thank you." He whispered. Cragen knew that smile would haunt him in his sleep.

"You're welcome. I'm going to leave you with Kathy now, I'm sure you two have a lot to talk about."

"Olivia..." Elliot called after Cragen as he backed away.

"She can see you soon. I promise Elliot, just concentrate on getting better."

"Okay."

"Good. I'll see you soon Elliot." Cragen nodded goodbye to Kathy as he headed back across the hall to Olivia's room. She sat up in her bed eagerly awaiting Cragen's answer as to when she could see Elliot.

"Do you know how long it will be?" She asked.

"When your doctor comes in this morning I can ask how long it will be before you can be out of bed. _Then _you can see Elliot." Olivia's eyes lit up at the last few words. "I promise."

_7:32 am..._

A doctor walked into Olivia's room to find his patient and Captain Cragen sitting in silence. "How's the lovely girl this morning?" He said positively.

"Fine." Olivia answered. "Better than fine. I need to see the Detective across the hall." She told him. "Now."

"Hang on a minute Olivia, you can't just go running about the halls of this hospital while you're still unwell." Olivia glared at the Captain who was conveniently looking at his fumbling hands.

"But I'm _fine_ Doctor." Olivia snapped. "I _need_ to see him."

"Just let me take a look at your records from yesterday and I'll see if I can organise something." The Doctor pulled her clipboard off the end of the bed and Captain Cragen approached him as he began reading what was written about her condition.

"Doctor Zeus," Cragen began, looking at the Doctor's name tag before he spoke. "She's eager to see Detective Stabler across the hall. Isn't there anything you can do? Can't she just visit him for a few minutes?"

Doctor Zeus looked up from the clipboard. "Olivia is doing exceptionally well considering what she has been through. If you let me go and find a wheel-chair then she can see him as soon as he's awake."

Olivia overheard. "Thank you, Doctor."

"Now Olivia, I must warn you that you still need to take it easy. You're still hurt and you're still unwell. You won't have much strength, and my guess is by the end of this afternoon you'll want to sleep again. I will allow you a short visit with Detective Stabler across the hall, but remember that he too is a patient here along with many others. Respect them all please, as I know you will." He smiled warmly at her and headed off to find a wheel-chair to transport her across to Elliot.

"Captain, thank you." Olivia said.

"I know that you need to see him, and I know that you're worried but he is okay. He's awake now and he's talking with Kathy."

"Kathy's in there with him?" Olivia seemed a little disappointed.

"Yes, she's his wife Olivia; she has as much right to see him as you or I."

"I know, but..." Olivia paused. "Could I possibly speak to him _alone_?"

"I'm sure Kathy could give you two some time." Cragen was unsure.

"I need to talk to him about what happened."

"Oh." Cragen was silent until Doctor Zeus returned, as was Olivia. "Doctor." Cragen heard him coming in.

"Are you ready Olivia?" Doctor Zeus asked.

"Yes." Olivia threw back the covers and slid her legs over the edge of the bed. Doctor Zeus pushed the wheel-chair up to the edge of the bed and steadied her as she lowered herself into it.

"You'll be allowed about an hour out of bed, but then I need to organise a therapy session for you." Doctor Zeus explained to Olivia. Captain Cragen walked behind them as they left the room.

"What sort of therapy?" Olivia asked.

"Well you've been through a traumatic experience, Olivia." The Doctor explained. "You don't just need support therapy but you also need some muscle therapy. I've already organised for you to see Doctor Gregson and he's going to help you gain strength in your muscles again. Don't be afraid Olivia, it's all routine therapy. I'm not going to force you into anything until you're ready."

"For now I just want to see Elliot." Olivia told him.

"All right. I'll take you to him now then." Doctor Zeus wheeled Olivia into Elliot's room, with Captain Cragen following behind. As soon as Olivia saw Elliot lying helplessly in his bed she felt her heart break. In his hand was Kathy's, making sure he knew that he wasn't alone anymore.

"Excuse me Mrs. Stabler, could I talk to you for a few minutes please?" Doctor Zeus said softly to Kathy. The Doctor, Olivia and Captain Cragen approached the bed.

Elliot looked over at Olivia. "Liv..." He whispered, a smile creeping onto his face. It was bruised, and still slightly blood-stained. As the Doctor set her wheel-chair beside Elliot he tilted his head to look into her eyes.

"How are you?" He asked.

"I'm fine, Elliot. How are you doing?" Elliot coughed and looked over at Captain Cragen then to the Doctor as he led Kathy out of the room.

"God..." He moaned.

"Elliot, Olivia has asked to be alone with you for a while." Cragen told him. Elliot simply nodded. "If you need anything just call. I'll be outside the door." He backed away before leaving the room.

"Elliot, God I didn't know what happened to you until Don told me."

"Liv... I..." Tears began to well up in his eyes. "

"What is it honey?"

"I'm... scared." He whispered, sobbing softly.

"Oh, Elliot, it's okay. You're safe now I promise. Liam can't hurt you anymore."

"I was scared for you too Liv."

"He's not getting to either of us ever again." Olivia told him.

"I was just so afraid... When I woke up I couldn't move... I could barely breathe and I was trapped in that box. There was nothing I could do. I was so helpless... because of Liam." His sobs became heavier, and outside the door Cragen could hear every heave of his chest. He hung his head in regret and buried his face in his hands.

"Elliot, I swear to you that you're okay now."

"God, Liv I'm still so scared. What if he comes back?"

"He's not coming back." Olivia assured him.

"What about Butcher?"

"Butcher?"

"The other guy, Liam's sidekick." Elliot informed her. She obviously never knew who he was.

"What about him?"

"Don didn't say that they caught him."

"Well they must have Elliot; they wouldn't let a psycho like that stay out there on the street." Olivia doubted herself. Don didn't mention Butcher to her either.

"Olivia, I just want this to be over. I don't want to be in pain anymore; I don't want to fear them and I don't want to be stuck here in this hospital. I want to get better and get as far away from here as possible."

"Elliot, you don't have to worry. I'll ask Don for some protection here and then you won't have anything be afraid of."

"So they _didn't_ catch Butcher?" Elliot asked, the fear catching in the back of his throat.

"I didn't say that, baby. Come on, don't beat yourself up. You're doing great; you're awake." She smiled warmly and took his hand in hers. "Be strong Elliot, and remember that I love you."

"I know you do. I love you too." He squeezed her fingers tightly and smiled back at her. "Please, don't leave me."

"I won't, baby. I won't."

_9:03 am..._

In the hour and a half that Olivia had been with Elliot they'd sorted out their issues about the events of the last few days. Everything was out in the open, and Olivia had told Doctor Zeus that she wasn't leaving Elliot's room.

"Olivia, you need to let Elliot sleep." Doctor Zeus explained.

"I can't leave him." She replied. "He needs someone here with him. He's afraid and he'll be better-off if I'm here in the room."

"You're just across the hall." Doctor Zeus pressed.

"I _refuse_ to leave this room." Olivia snapped. Cragen stood at the doorway, silent.

"Captain Cragen, aren't you going to discipline your Detectives? You know full-well that she can't stay here."

"I'm sorry Doctor, if these two Detectives wish to be in the same room then they will be in the same room. I'm sure you can transfer Olivia into this room, can't you?" Cragen made it inescapable for the Doctor to back out. "I'm sure you can make an exception because of the circumstances."

"Captain Cragen, you're pushing your luck here."

"Captain, we need police protection. Elliot is scared that a man named Butcher is still out there." Cragen's eyes went wide.

"_What_? Who is he?"

"I don't know, Elliot said he was there at the factory. I don't remember another man ever being there..." Her voice trailed off.

"If police protection is required then they should be in the same room so officers can watch the door." Cragen continued, speaking to Doctor Zeus again. The Doctor sighed.

"Consider yourselves very lucky Detectives, that you have such a concerned Captain. He knows what to do to take advantage of any given situation..." The Doctor huffed and left the room defeated.

Olivia smiled and looked to Elliot, whose expression was now relaxed and peaceful. _Thankyou_, he mouthed to Olivia before drifting off to sleep.

_NYPD: SVU squad room, Captain Cragen's Office, 10:52 am…_

Munch, Fin and Kathy sat silently in Captain Cragen's office waiting for him to return from the hospital. The door creaked open and Cragen walked in, not saying a word but giving each person in the room a feeble smile.

"How's Elliot?" Kathy inquired. "When can I see him again?"

"He and Olivia are sharing a room now." Cragen replied, sitting down at his desk. Kathy lowered her head, almost disappointed by the news. "Olivia pressed for it to happen."

"I see." Kathy whispered.

"She said that Elliot was afraid..." Fin and Munch both snapped their heads up at the word 'afraid'.

"Afraid of what?" Fin asked.

"A man named Butcher. Apparently he was at the factory, but Olivia doesn't remember him. Elliot is so scared that they've asked for police protection at the hospital. He thinks this man is going to come back."

"Well we've got to find him then..." Munch said. "Is..." He paused, realising that what he was about to ask was way too much at this stage.

"What?" Cragen turned to face his Detective.

"Is it possible Elliot can give us an ID?" He hung his head as he spoke, not comfortable having everyone see him as he knew what he was asking was wrong.

"I'll talk to him and Olivia and see if I can get anything from them about him. It's a lot to ask but we're not going to get anywhere unless we know." Cragen said.

"I'm sorry, Captain." Munch apologised.

"Don't be. It's a good point to raise." Cragen doubted whether Elliot could do it or not right now, but knew that he had to try. I'll go and see him after lunch."

"Can I come with you?" Kathy asked.

"Sure. Go see him whenever you need to. Don't feel as though we're holding you back." Cragen sympathised. _She was still his wife_.

_Bellevue Hospital Cafeteria, 12:26 pm..._

Cragen and Kathy ate in silence. With identical salad sandwiches they chewed slowly, Kathy finishing hers first.

"I want to go and see Elliot." She told Cragen, getting to her feet.

"Okay," Cragen swallowed a mouthful. "I'll be in soon. Take as long as you need." He smiled warmly and sent her off as he finished the remainder of his sandwich.

_12:33 pm..._

Kathy approached room 209 and already there was a police officer guarding the door. As she stopped a few feet away from the officer, he questioned her as to who she was before allowing her in.

"I'm Elliot's wife." She whispered. He nodded sombrely and opened the door. Inside, Elliot lay peacefully sleeping on the left-hand side of the room, while Olivia had a bed on the right-hand side of the room. She too was sleeping, but Kathy didn't know that she had only dozed of a few minutes ago.

She approached Elliot's bed and pulled a chair over. She cringed as it squeaked on the linoleum floor before sitting down beside where he lay. Sighing, she gripped his hand and gently squeezed it.

"Oh, Elliot. Why did this have to happen to you? Why couldn't it be someone else? _Anyone_ else?" Kathy lay her head down on Elliot's stomach gently and continued to grasp his hand.

He flinched.

Kathy sprung up instantly, letting go of his hand. "Uhh..." He moaned, clearly in pain. His eyes flittered and Kathy could tell that his breathing was becoming more and more irregular as each second ticked by.

_Should she call for a Doctor? _

"Aagh!" He cried suddenly.

"Elliot!" Kathy jumped up suddenly and knocked the chair to the ground. The door flew open and Cragen rushed in with two Doctors while the police guard watched from outside in the hall.

"What happened?" Cragen asked.

"He woke up and just started screaming!" She cried hysterically. "What's wrong with him?" She looked to the Doctors for an answer but they just ignored her and rushed to Elliot's side.

"No! Leave her alone!" Elliot screamed. "No!"

"What's he talking about?" Kathy yelled over his screams. Cragen looked as distressed as Kathy, but didn't reply for several seconds.

"Olivia."

The Doctors finally managed to calm him down, injecting him with a sedative to soothe him. As he relaxed and continued sleeping, Kathy turned to Cragen.

"Don, I'm worried about him."

"He's alright Kathy, he'll be okay."

"No he won't. He's not okay and he won't be. He's scared, Don, I can tell."

"Olivia said that he was afraid of a man named Butcher. Could that be what he was dreaming about?"

"More like a nightmare I'd say." Kathy turned back to Elliot who lay motionless in the hospital bed and wiped a tear from her eye. This was killing her.

_2:49 pm..._

Several hours had passed and Kathy had sat by Elliot's side the whole time since his outburst. She was so worried and Cragen wasn't going to keep her from him. He had checked in on them and Olivia every now and then, for the first half an hour, then decided to return to the precinct.

In the hospital carpark Cragen watched as Munch's car pulled into an empty space nearby. The Detective climbed out of his car and dug his hands into his pockets. Although it was spring, the day was surprisingly cold. The air outside was chilly and the cool breeze blowing didn't help the cause at all. Munch looked up and saw Cragen standing beside his car.

"Captain." He greeted, wandering over. "How's Elliot? I came to see him."

"He's sleeping right now. Kathy's in there with him."

"Oh." Munch was having second thoughts about going in. _His wife_... He kept thinking. _How bad must she feel right now_...

"You can still go in, John, just be gentle with him. He had an outburst earlier from a dream. He's afraid and he's not handling things too well right now."

"Is he alright though?"

"Yeah. He was better earlier, but something is getting to him now. It's starting to show..."

"I'll maybe just stop by for a few minutes." He pulled a card out of his coat. "I wanted to give him something for when he wakes up. Maybe I'll get lucky and he'll be awake."

"Maybe." Cragen sucked on his bottom lip as silence lingered for a few seconds. "I'll see you back at the precinct John."

Munch simply nodded before turning and heading into the hospital.

_2:55 pm..._

Munch entered the room after being authorised by the police guard, and closed the door quietly behind him.

Kathy looked up. "John." She greeted. He smiled and walked over.

"How's he doing?"

"He's been sleeping for a while. I just hope he's okay in there..."

As Munch approached he got a closer look at Elliot's injuries and their extent. _Bastard_. Ugly bruises were all over his face and the presently visible skin on his arms. His knuckles were red and the skin had split in several places. _Nice one, you fought back_. His lip was cut, and there was a bandage on his head where an obviously nasty wound was being covered. Sighing, Munch stood behind Kathy and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"He'll get better soon." Munch whispered. "Just believe in him, and he'll be okay."

_NYPD: SVU squad room, 3:34 pm..._

Cragen heard Munch return and watched out of his office as he spoke to Fin.

"How's Elliot?" Fin asked as Munch hung up his coat.

"He's in bad shape but he's holding on." Munch answered bluntly.

"Thank God we found him in time..." Fin mused.

"In_ time_? Munch snapped. "We didn't find him _in time_, we were too late. He's traumatised, severely injured and afraid of a man we don't even know about. We're pretty much screwed right now in helping him." Cragen stuck his head out of his office.

"Fin, Munch!" He called. "My office. Now." The two Detectives wandered in as Cragen closed the door behind them.

"What's this about Captain?" Fin inquired.

"We're going to find this 'mystery man' Elliot is so afraid of. Get in contact with Riker's and organise a meeting tomorrow with Pat Benedict. Find out if he knows anything about a man named Butcher. Last name, nickname – I don't care. Just do whatever you need to figure out who this guy is."

"What about Liam?" Fin suggested. "Do you think he'd sell out his buddy?"

"It's worth a try; he gave up the info on where to find Elliot back at the house. Maybe he'll be good for something."

"Do you want me to talk to Riker's about having a meeting with Liam tomorrow as well?" Munch offered.

"No, I'll be the one to pay Liam a visit. You just take organise a meeting with Benedict. You spoke with him earlier and he broke down, maybe you can work him a little bit more."

"No problem." Fin replied.

"Alright. Let's get it done, as early tomorrow as you possibly can. We don't want this guy out there for too much longer in case Elliot and Olivia's fears come true. I can't let that happen."

"We understand." Munch said. "Consider it done."

A/N: it will be a while again before another update. Sorry, I am trying to get this done but school and work aren't helping. Any suggestions people have about this I will gladly look into putting into the story somehow, and please review because all feedback is welcome.


End file.
